Austria – Free Practice 3: Bottas beats Hamilton

Pastor Maldonado is the first driver to hit the track at the opening of the pit lane. The Lotus driver is quickly followed by numerous cars. The milder temperatures – 30 degrees on the track – will likely help with understanding the tires during this final practice session.

Kevin Magnussen sets the initial time at 1:16.696 and then 1:15.692, but the Mercedes drivers quickly improve. Nico Rosberg crosses the line at 1:12.987; we’re still far from yesterday afternoon’s times, but there are still 50 minutes left in this session.

After 20 minutes, it’s Felipe Massa who tops the timesheet with a time of 1:10.644. The Brazilian is ahead of his teammate, Bottas, and Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso. The two Williams cars, which were already very fast yesterday, compete for the top position in the following minutes, each taking the lead successively.

At mid-session, Valtteri Bottas is the fastest man with a time of 1:10.430, ahead of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, who places his Ferrari a tenth of a second behind the Williams.

There are just over 20 minutes left and the Mercedes are going on the offensive. Nico Rosberg is running a lap time of 1:10.058, still equipped with soft yellow sidewall tires. Over at McLaren, they are busy working on Jenson Button’s car. The Briton has only completed four laps this morning.

At Sauber, braking seems to be a problem. After Adrian Sutil, it’s Gutiérrez who complains, explaining that the adjustment changes do not improve the situation.

At the start of the final quarter hour calm prevails on the circuit before heading out on track equipped with super-soft tires in preparation for the qualifying session. Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen are the first to fit these tires on their cars.

Fernando Alonso takes advantage of these new tires to position himself ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes with a time of 1:10.054. A time quickly improved by Bottas with 1:10.008, then by Massa with 1:09.901. There are five minutes left before the end of the 60 minutes of this free practice 3.

With 3 minutes remaining and Lewis Hamilton leading the pack, Kamui Kobayashi loses control of his car in the final sequence, causing a yellow flag. This doesn’t prevent Valtteri Bottas from clocking the best time in the final moments at 1:09.848, five hundredths better than Lewis Hamilton.