Rosberg takes the lead in FP3

By on
F1 Grand Prix, GP Malaysia, Sepang International Circuitmy

Nico Rosberg broke McLaren's domination at Malaysia by topping the final practice ahead of qualifying. The Mercedes driver dominated the session and was the only German below 1m 37s, more than 4 tenths faster than nearest competitor Sebastian Vettel.

The beginning of the session was remarkably quiet as the teams were waiting for turn 9 in particular to dry up after a brief shower.

Further on, both Maldonado and Senna topped the times for a short period as they demonstrated the pace of the Williams. Lewis Hamilton meanwhile awaited the right moment to take to the track but a mistake caused him to end up in the gravel trap on his first flying lap.

Ferrari meanwhile were still nowhere near the top runners, with Alonso in 13th and Massa down in 18th position, ahead only of Caterham, Murussia and HRT.

Results

Pos.No.DriverTeamTimeGapLaps
18Nico RosbergMercedes Amg1:36.877-16
21Sebastian VettelRed Bull Racing-Renault1:37.3200.44315
32Mark WebberRed Bull Racing-Renault1:37.3380.46112
49Kimi RäikkönenLotus-Renault1:37.3560.47913
510Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1:37.3820.50513
63Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1:37.4040.52712
718Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1:37.4550.57813
87Michael SchumacherMercedes Amg1:37.6630.78615
94Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1:37.7760.8998
1014Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1:37.9771.10017
1119Bruno SennaWilliams-Renault1:38.0911.21420
1215Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1:38.1781.30115
135Fernando AlonsoFerrari1:38.2461.36917
1412Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1:38.2851.40816
1516Daniel RicciardoStr-Ferrari1:38.4231.54613
1617Jean-Eric VergneStr-Ferrari1:38.6401.76311
1711Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1:38.7941.91718
186Felipe MassaFerrari1:39.2092.33216
1921Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault1:39.7042.82715
2020Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault1:40.1893.31214
2125Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth1:41.9015.02414
2224Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth1:42.0075.13014
2322Pedro de la RosaHrt-Cosworth1:42.4645.58714
2423Narain KarthikeyanHrt-Cosworth1:43.3786.50117