Massa tops soaked and shortened final practice
The final practice session ahead of qualifying was cut short dramatically, as heavy rain delayed the session. With just 16 minutes left, the session got underway with all drivers on full wet tyres. Felipe Massa emerged on top, ahead of his team mate Lance Stroll.
The shortened session saw all drivers go out on track, but only 7 of them bothered to record a timed lap. Lewis Hamilton for instance didn't even complete an single lap, and just went round once to come back into the pits. Bottas, Perez and both Haas drivers had identical run schedules.
The Ferraris on the other hand did go round a few times. While not recording timed laps, Vettel did set the fastest first sector time and Raikkonen was fastest in the second sector.
In the end though, it were Williams's cars who ended up fastest, perhaps unsurprisingly given that they seemed to be running slightly more rear wing than their competitors.
Results
Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams Mercedes | 1:40.660 | - | 4 |
2 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams Mercedes | 1:40.888 | +0.228s | 4 |
3 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1:41.491 | +0.831s | 4 |
4 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:41.515 | +0.855s | 5 |
5 | 30 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1:44.369 | +3.709s | 4 |
6 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber Ferrari | 1:44.701 | +4.041s | 3 |
7 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:45.033 | +4.373s | 4 |
8 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer | - | - | 1 |
9 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer | - | - | 1 |
10 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | - | - | 3 |
11 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | - | - | 4 |
12 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren Honda | - | - | 2 |
13 | 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren Honda | - | - | 4 |
14 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas Ferrari | - | - | 1 |
15 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | - | - | 1 |
16 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Force India Mercedes | - | - | 2 |
17 | 94 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber Ferrari | - | - | 2 |
18 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | - | - | 1 |
19 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India Mercedes | - | - | 1 |
20 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | - | - | 1 |