Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Vettel tops FP3 as Raikkonen crashes

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Sebastian Vettel set the pace in final practice for the Monaco Grand Prix as team-mate Kimi Raikkonen crashed.

With the two Mercedes having been top for the majority of the session, Vettel produced a quick lap in the final five minutes to go over half a second clear of the field. Nico Rosberg did respond to cut the gap to 0.2s but was unable to beat the Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton was third after seeing his final run interrupted by traffic, leaving him half a second behind Vettel while Daniel Ricciardo in fourth was the only other driver to get within a second of the Ferrari.

It's same to assume Raikkonen would have been near the top of the times but for his crash, with his error coming while he sat third in the standings. Raikkonen lost the rear of his Ferrari exiting Ste Devote and hit the barrier with his left rear wheel, damaging the suspension and bringing out the red flag.

The Ferrari was moved behind a barrier but Raikkonen's session ended after just 11 laps. With no supersoft tyre running on Thursday, the Finn is set for a challenging qualifying session with so little experience on the faster compound.

Raikkonen ended FP3 in sixth place despite his error, with Carlos Sainz ahead of him in fifth place. Daniil Kvyat was seventh ahead of Jenson Button as McLaren again looks capable of challenging for Q3.

Max Verstappen was ninth but made his first mistake of the weekend as he hit the wall at the final corner. Having been held up by a McLaren at Rascasse, Verstappen was eager on the throttle as the car in front of him entered the pits and the Toro Rosso swapped ends before the final corner, hitting the barrier on the outside and breaking his rear wing.

Romain Grosjean was tenth for Lotus ahead of Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado, while Williams looks set for a difficult qualifying after Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa could only end the session in 15th and 16th respectively.

Click here for a look at the technical updates brought by all the teams at the start of the European season

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:16.143	27
02	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:16.361	31
03	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:16.705	31
04	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:17.120	26
05	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:17.256	39
06	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:17.401	11
07	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1:17.471	28
08	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:17.767	28
09	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:17.788	23
10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:17.806	28
11	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:17.832	30
12	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:17.956	28
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:18.102	32
14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:18.197	26
15	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:18.212	29
16	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:18.242	32
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:18.767	38
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:19.269	37
19	Will Stevens	Manor	1:21.093	31
20	Roberto Merhi	Manor	1:22.225	30

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.