FP3: Vettel fastest as Rosberg crashes
Sebastian Vettel set the pace in final practice for the Austrian GP as championship leader Nico Rosberg crashed into the Turn 2 barriers.
Heading out for his first ultrasoft run of the session, Rosberg had a wobble out of Turn 2 as it appeared something – most likely the wishbone – broke on his W07.
Rosberg smacked the barrier nose first before the car swung around, resulting in a rear end impact as well.
“Rosberg all good. His W07, not so much. Back to the garage it is then,” Mercedes tweeted.
The crash brought out the red flags in what was already a trying session for Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton complained about tyre wear.
“Take a look at my rears, something is not right,” he said over the radio.
Asked to put in a couple more laps for Mercedes to get a look at it, he responds by saying he will “go off” if he continues. He pitted with 11 laps on his ultrasoft tyres.
He was not the only driver suffering with tyre wear as Daniel Ricciardo joined the chorus as yet another lock up was followed by a comment that he had “killed” his tyres while Rosberg, and others, showed blistering on his rears.
Ferrari had no such problems. Vettel finished P1 with a 1:07.098, despite locking up on that lap, while Kimi Raikkonen was second, 0.136s down on his team-mate.
Hamilton was third quickest, 0.210s off the pace, ahead of Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.
The Red Bull pairing beat the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, who were the final two drivers to get within a second off Vettel’s P1 time.
Nico Hulkenberg, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso completed the top ten while Pascal Wehrlein shone as he finished P13. The Manor driver was 1.436s off the pace.
Times
1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’07.098 19 laps
2 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’07.234 0.136 25 laps
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’07.308 0.210 19 laps
4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1’07.639 0.541 21 laps
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1’07.761 0.663 21 laps
6 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1’07.814 0.716 22 laps
7 Felipe Massa Williams 1’07.831 0.733 26 laps
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1’08.285 1.187 22 laps
9 Jenson Button McLaren 1’08.304 1.206 18 laps
10 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1’08.327 1.229 16 laps
11 Sergio Perez Force India 1’08.442 1.344 25 laps
12 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1’08.475 1.377 21 laps
13 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1’08.534 1.436 28 laps
14 Romain Grosjean Haas 1’08.550 1.452 20 laps
15 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1’08.569 1.471 31 laps
16 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1’08.786 1.688 31 laps
17 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1’08.939 1.841 26 laps
18 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso 1’09.008 1.910 11 laps
19 Rio Haryanto Manor 1’09.116 2.018 27 laps
20 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1’09.137 2.039 25 laps
21 Felipe Nasr Sauber Ferrari 1’09.557 2.459 19 laps
22 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’10.959 3.861 16 laps