Rosberg ahead in FP3 as Hamilton takes it easy

F1 Grand Prix, GP Spain, Circuit de Catalunya

Nico Rosberg topped the timesheet during the third and final practice session in preparation for qualifying and the Spanish Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton ended in second but did not attempt to take the top spot, seemingly happy with the car as it was.

Few drivers went off the track during the session as well. Jean-Eric Vergne and Kamui Kobayashi were wide through turn 4 but both managed to recover without issues.

The early part of the session though was dominated with drivers complaining about the lack of rear grip on the hard Pirelli tyres. It was obvious on track that many had difficulties controlling their cars with powerslides through turns 2, 3 and 8 from lots of different racers. Nico Hulkenberg was also heard complaining of severe overheating of the rear tyres halfway into the session, at a point where track temperatures were around 28°C.

Sutil's problems meanwhile were worse than that as the German complained about a general lack of instability on his Sauber, saying "it's a completely different car to yesterday".

11 minutes from the end, Max Chilton ended his running early on by ending up in the gravel trap at turn 5. The Briton was seen in a massive power slide a few laps earlier to turn 8 but this time was unable to correct the oversteer in time to keep his car on track.

Lewis Hamilton on the other hand also had enough of FP3, setting the second fastest time but seemingly very pleased with his car. Seeing no need to improve any further during this session bodes well for him. This left Nico Rosberg on top of the timesheet, 1.3s ahead of Fernando Alonso who is third fastest and the first of the rest.

At the very end of the session, Lotus showed further signs of improvement whereas Sebastian Vettel didn't bother showing all the pace that might be in his Red Bull RB10.