Brazil – Free Practice 3: Rosberg Maintains Lead Over Hamilton

The final hour of free practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix is expected to take place under a cloudy sky but not yet rainy.

The session is underway! The two Lotus cars are the first on track, followed by the Williams and Ferraris for the installation lap. The first driver to set a time is Vergne, with 1:16.8, which he then improves to 1:15.1, 1:13.9, and 1:13.3. He is closely followed by Kvyat, but Magnussen takes the lead with 1:13.0 and then 1:12.7. As Massa clocks a 1:12.0, Hamilton makes a mistake at the end of the straight: the Brit loses the rear under braking but manages to recover and stop in the runoff before heading back in the right direction. At the same spot, a few moments later, Vergne goes straight and has to use the old circuit to return to the track after the Senna esses.

Massa continues his effort on medium tires, with 1:11.5. After 20 minutes in this session, the Brazilian holds the records for all three sectors. Räikkönen closes in by four-tenths. Shortly before the half-hour mark, the soft (yellow) tires make their appearance with Maldonado and Pérez.

After 30 minutes, Massa leads Räikkönen, Ricciardo, Bottas, and Kvyat. The Australian announces on his radio that he’s losing the rear while braking. Maldonado takes advantage of his second lap on soft tires to clock the provisional 4th fastest time, at 1:12.0. The Mercedes are not seeking performance at the moment: Rosberg is 9th nearly a second behind, and Hamilton is last more than three seconds behind Massa. Things are quite clear for the moment: the leading teams are working with the hardest tires while the smaller teams are working on the soft ones.

We have to wait until the last third of the session to see Alonso set the best time on soft tires with a 1:11.3. A few minutes later, Rosberg clocks in on the track with yellow-walled tires: he takes a commanding lead with a 1:10.4. Ricciardo falls short by seven-tenths, Räikkönen by eight. While Hamilton is on track testing the soft tires, Alonso is already in civilian clothes in the Ferrari garage. The session ends for the Spaniard. The championship leader arrives and records a 1:10.5. The Williams team has not yet used the soft tires. Once they do, Bottas records a 1:11.0 and Massa a 1:10.8, taking the 4th and 3rd fastest times, respectively.

A few moments before the end of the session, Massa gets upset with Pérez for obstructing him, just as Grosjean obstructed Hamilton. Some things never change.