Frustrating P12 for Max in final practice session
Published on 25 March 2017 by Stefan Meens
Max Verstappen was only twelfth quickest in the final practice session for the Australian Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel raised the hopes of a two-way fight with Mercedes for pole position by lapping the Albert Park street circuit quickest. The Ferrari driver posted a 1:23.380, being nearly half a second than Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton.
At the start of the session we see a fairly unknown driver in the Sauber alongside Marcus Ericsson; Antonio Giovinazzi, GP2’s 2016 runner-up has replaced Pascal Wehrlein. The German is struggling too much with his back injury sustained at last year’s Race of Champions.
As the pitlane opens, a couple of rain drops are spotted, but not enough to pose a serious wet weather threat. Instead, everyone heads out slicks, mostly the softs.
Kimi Raikkonen is the first to hit trouble. The Finn is forced to stop his Ferrari after suffering a puncture.
Once the super-softs are bolted on, it’s Sebastian Vettel that sets the pace, followed by the Mercedes drivers. Max has also switched to fastest Pirelli compound available. He aborts his first quick run and notifies the team that the handling of the car is far from optimal.
With ten minutes on the clock, there is a red flag; Lance Stroll has crashed his Williams into a wall, forcing his mechanics to work through lunch in order to get his car ready for qualifying. Meanwhile the clocks keeps ticking without the red flag being removed, meaning Max did not get a chance to do a proper qualifying simulation.
Australian Grand Prix - Alber Park - Saturday 25 March 2017
FREE PRACTICE 3 RESULTS 01 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:23.380 12 02 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:23.859 +0.479s 12 03 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:23.870 +0.490s 12 04 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:23.988 +0.608s 10 05 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:25.063 +1.683s 10 06 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:25.092 +1.712s 15 07 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:25.581 +2.201s 11 08 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:25.948 +2.568s 11 09 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:26.049 +2.669s 11 10 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:26.138 +2.758s 11 11 19 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 1:26.237 +2.857s 15 12 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:26.269 +2.889s 7 13 11 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 1:26.457 +3.077s 12 14 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 1:26.556 +3.176s 7 15 2 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Honda 1:26.699 +3.319s 9 16 31 Esteban Ocon Force India Mercedes 1:27.103 +3.723s 16 17 18 Lance Stroll Williams Mercedes 1:27.327 +3.947s 12 18 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 1:27.402 +4.022s 10 19 30 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:28.320 +4.940s 12 20 36 Antonio Giovinazzi Sauber Ferrari 1:28.583 +5.203s 18
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