Rosberg ahead as competition closes in
Final practice ahead of qualifying the Spanish Grand Prix has ended with Nico Rosberg topping the timesheet, just like he did in both yesterday's sessions. Lewis Hamilton stranded as a tenth of his teammate while Sebastian Vettel confirmed the Scuderia is up for a close battle in qualifying.
Behind the three fastest runners of the session, all of whom set their times towards the end of the one-hour session on soft tyres is a gap of half a second to Max Verstappen. The Dutchman managed to beat team mate Daniel Ricciardo by a tenth as the latter made a slight mistake on his fastest attempt, losing out on his new team mate. Both Red Bulls certainly appear to have some pace at Barcelona, a track commonly known to favour cars with good aerodynamic properties.
Kimi Raikkonen slotted in behind the Red Bull drivers, followed by Bottas in the fastest Williams, Perez in the first Force India and Daniil Kvyat, who, just like Verstappen, managed to finish a session quicker than his team mate for the first time this weekend.
Results
Pos. | .No. | .Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:23.078 | - | 15 |
2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:23.204 | +0.126s | 11 |
3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:23.225 | +0.147s | 16 |
4 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 1:23.719 | +0.641s | 10 |
5 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing | 1:23.816 | +0.738s | 9 |
6 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:24.110 | +1.032s | 13 |
7 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:24.356 | +1.278s | 14 |
8 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:24.472 | +1.394s | 15 |
9 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:24.553 | +1.475s | 13 |
10 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Mclaren | 1:24.555 | +1.477s | 13 |
11 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:24.585 | +1.507s | 15 |
12 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:24.621 | +1.543s | 15 |
13 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:24.695 | +1.617s | 21 |
14 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:24.981 | +1.903s | 13 |
15 | 22 | Jenson Button | Mclaren | 1:25.051 | +1.973s | 13 |
16 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1:25.100 | +2.022s | 12 |
17 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 1:25.130 | +2.052s | 17 |
18 | 30 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1:25.376 | +2.298s | 13 |
19 | 12 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:25.383 | +2.305s | 22 |
20 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:25.401 | +2.323s | 24 |
21 | 94 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 1:26.097 | +3.019s | 13 |
22 | 88 | Rio Haryanto | Manor | 1:26.251 | +3.173s | 19 |