Spain – Free Practice 3: Felipe Massa’s Turn to Shine

Final practice session of this Spanish Grand Prix before the afternoon’s qualifying. Fernando Alonso quickly heads out for a reconnaissance lap and takes the opportunity to greet the large crowd gathered at the circuit this Saturday. Meanwhile, at Lotus, work is still being done on Kimi Räikkönen’s Lotus E21, which is not fully ready to hit the track. The same goes for Romain Grosjean’s car.

Start of the session will be dedicated to long runs for Lewis Hamilton. We know that the Mercedes is fast over one lap but struggles in the race due to tire issues.

Charles Pic is the first to lead this final session with a lap time of 1:25.635. Van der Garde is right behind him. Caterham arrived in Spain with an updated car, the most visible change being at the nose, which features a cover to hide the step as permitted by the regulations.

At the end of the first quarter-hour, five drivers have clocked a time. Gutierrez leads Pic, Van der Garde, Hamilton, and Rosberg. The Mexican driver is running at 1:25.013. It is quite surprising not to see more action on track after the time lost yesterday morning, especially since the weather conditions are very good over the circuit. However, this calm should not last too long. Sebastian Vettel takes to the track and immediately places at the top of the standings. 1:23.920 for the triple world champion. The German is quickly followed by other drivers including Kimi Räikkönen, who temporarily displaces him from the first position. Behind yesterday afternoon due to a technical issue, Romain Grosjean reassures himself by taking the best time at 1:23.042.

While at the front the benchmark time changes hands regularly, Mercedes continues its work in preparation for the race. Hamilton and Rosberg return to the pits after 13 and 14 laps. Unsurprisingly, both men are far down the standings with times in 1:27, 1:28.

There are 30 minutes left in this free practice session and it’s Fernando Alonso who is setting the pace with a time of 1:23.006 ahead of the two Lotus cars. Massa and Vettel complete the top 5.

On the McLaren side, things are not going very well for Sergio Pérez, who is in last place and is complaining about an issue with his front left suspension. The Mexican driver is heading back to the pits so his engineers can fix it.

**With 20 minutes remaining**, Nico Rosberg returns to the track fitted with the medium tires provided by Pirelli. Alonso does the same. The Ferrari driver improves his time to 1:22.254. Nico Rosberg places himself in second position behind the F138. Lewis Hamilton follows closely, positioning himself in second place between Alonso and his teammate. The Briton is 5 tenths behind Alonso.

The Spanish driver is displaced by Kimi Räikkönen in the last 10 minutes of this final practice session. The Lotus makes the difference in sectors 2 and 3. A few minutes later, Mark Webber also improves the Spanish driver’s time and places his Red Bull in 2nd position. Felipe Massa is on a good lap as well and beats Räikkönen by just 6 thousandths.

At the end of this hour of testing, it’s Felipe Massa who sets the fastest time at 1:21.901. The Brazilian driver is ahead of Räikkönen and Webber. Alonso is 6th. Also noteworthy is the strong performance of Jean-Eric Vergne once again in the top 10.

Free Practice 3 Standings of the Spanish Grand Prix: