Torro Rosso behind Mercedes and Ferrari in final practice Melbourne
Published on 19 March 2016 by Mike Motilall
In the run up to the Australian GP, Scuderia Toro Rosso did an excellent job during the third and final free practice. With Max Verstappen in sixth and Carlos Sainz in fourth, the Italian squad was behind the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari as the ‘best of the rest’. Lewis Hamilton once again was at the front, ahead of his German team mate Nico Rosberg.
For the first time, it’s completely dry in Melbourne when the lights turn green for the third free practice. It is as busy as can get, from the word go. In all the commotion the teams were experiencing, in getting their cars on the grid, new kid on the block Rio Haryanto (Manor) and Romain Grosjean (Haas) ran into one another. They hit each other in the pit lane and damaged their cars.
Max starts the session on new soft tyres, giving him in his fifth lap, the fastest time till then, a 1:31.596. While we see Fernando Alonso do a 360 degrees spin, Sergio Perez spin in turn fifteen, Nico Rosberg and the other colleagues make small errors, the Dutchman is lapping the track rather neatly. After a long stint, seventeen laps, Max heads back in to the pits, by then he is eleventh.
With still eighteen minutes on the clock, the STR11 takes to the track again, now on the supersoft compound. This puts Max briefly in sixth (1:27.266), before going back in after four laps. At the front, we see the usual suspects Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) and Hamilton, but the Mercedes-drivers haven’t used the softest compound tyres yet.
Mercedes straps on the super softs, with still ten minutes remaining. Moments later, Verstappen also ventures out for his final stint. As all the drivers, 22 in total, are on the grid, Max clocks, two minutes before the checkered flag, a 1:26.701. This is good enough for a sixth position on the time board.
Hamilton and Rosberg are in the lead, ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Sainz finishes, quite decently, in fourth, in front of Raikkonen’s Ferrari. This is a good way to start an exciting qualifying session in the new format. Which will start at 7:00 Dutch time, and will be featured live on Ziggo Sport and Ziggo Sport Totaal.
Albert Park – Australian Grand Prix – Saturday 19 March 2016:
P No Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:25.624 24 2 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:25.800 +0.176s 25 3 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:25.852 +0.228s 25 4 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:26.257 +0.633s 28 5 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:26.435 +0.811s 23 6 33 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:26.701 +1.077s 26 7 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:26.730 +1.106s 28 8 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:26.768 +1.144s 22 9 19 Felipe Massa Williams 1:27.151 +1.527s 28 10 11 Sergio Perez Force India 1:27.242 +1.618s 22 11 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:27.263 +1.639s 20 12 22 Jenson Button McLaren 1:27.341 +1.717s 20 13 26 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull 1:27.430 +1.806s 22 14 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:27.659 +2.035s 26 15 20 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:27.871 +2.247s 24 16 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:27.988 +2.364s 22 17 30 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:28.117 +2.493s 24 18 21 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:28.284 +2.660s 21 19 8 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:28.292 +2.668s 11 20 12 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:28.293 +2.669s 26 21 94 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:29.046 +3.422s 18 22 88 Rio Haryanto Manor 1:29.272 +3.648s 23
