Rosberg fastest in third free practice, Max P16

Published on 06 June 2015 by Mike Motilall

Having been interrupted twice, in the third free practice Max Verstappen was sixteenth. Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes in Montreal was the fastest. The German finished ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in his Ferrari and the Lotus driven Romain Grosjean.

Max, starting the session with his fifth engine, was anything but happy: “The car is difficult to drive. One lap I am locking up my front tyres in the first corner, next lap I am struggling with the rear. We also need to improve the traction.”

After about fifteen minutes, during his first stint on the softs, Max puts down a 1:18.546. Good enough for P5 at that time. Having done eleven laps, he pits to leave some ten minutes later on fresh new rubber.

In the mean time we see a lot of drivers struggling with turn thirteen, the last chicane of the track. Except for Max, Sebastian Vettel, Pastor Maldonado, Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz all miss that corner.

Just a little over half time of the one hour practice session, Max does his fastest laptime, 1:18.492. Earning him the sixteenth spot. A few minutes later, Felipe Nasr hits the wall while weaving on the straight, in order to try to warm up his tyres. But he loses control of his Sauber. The impact with the wall is hard enough to demolish the front of the C34. This triggers a red flag that lasts eleven minutes.

After that, everyone makes it quickly to the track on the super softs. Max is the exception. The lap times naturally get improved, but there is no room for driving for a long time. When the lights turn green again, after about five minutes, Jenson Button parks his McLaren beside the track. The red flag, brought out to recover his car safely, signals a premature finish of the free practice.

World Champion and leader in the championship Lewis Hamilton, is last on the leader board. Just when the Britt is finally able to do a flawless lap, that could bring about a fast lap time, he needs to abort it due to the code red.

Canadian Grand Prix - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - Saturday 6 June

 P  No Driver             Team          Time     Gap   Laps 
 1   6 Nico Rosberg       Mercedes      1:15.660         17 
 2   7 Kimi Räikkönen     Ferrari       1:16.233 +0.573s 20 
 3   8 Romain Grosjean    Lotus         1:16.772 +1.112s 14 
 4  77 Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1:16.914 +1.254s 17 
 5  11 Sergio Perez       Force India   1:16.993 +1.333s 16 
 6  26 Daniil Kvyat       Red Bull      1:17.021 +1.361s 19 
 7  19 Felipe Massa       Williams      1:17.122 +1.462s 18 
 8   5 Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari       1:17.197 +1.537s 18 
 9  55 Carlos Sainz       Toro Rosso    1:17.396 +1.736s 25 
10  13 Pastor Maldonado   Lotus         1:17.573 +1.913s 12 
11   9 Marcus Ericsson    Sauber        1:17.578 +1.918s 21 
12  27 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India   1:17.876 +2.216s 14 
13   3 Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull      1:17.892 +2.232s 18 
14  12 Felipe Nasr        Sauber        1:18.446 +2.786s 12 
15  22 Jenson Button      McLaren       1:18.473 +2.813s 18 
16  33 Max Verstappen     Toro Rosso    1:18.492 +2.832s 18 
17  28 Will Stevens       Marussia      1:19.822 +4.162s 16 
18  14 Fernando Alonso    McLaren       1:19.874 +4.214s  3 
19  98 Roberto Merhi      Marussia      1:20.231 +4.571s 16 
20  44 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1:21.492 +5.832s  9 

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