Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Vettel tops rain-hit FP3 as Alonso causes red flag

Sebastian Vettel was fastest for the second practice session in a row as Fernando Alonso stopped on track during a rain-hit FP3.

Having been 0.011s quicker than Nico Rosberg in Friday's afternoon session, Vettel was just 0.017s faster than Lewis Hamilton in final practice after setting a time of 1:09.994. Kimi Raikkonen was third, 0.183s slower than his team-mate, while Sergio Perez finished fourth ahead of Nico Rosberg.

It was another tight session, with the two Williams cars behind Rosberg and Max Verstappen in eighth place all within half a second of Vettel's time, but many drivers running different programs as rain threatened. Only Perez and Verstappen of the top ten managed a supersoft tyre lap, with Perez's hand forced by a front-right tyre deflation which Pirelli said was rim-related and not a tyre failure.

The two Lotus drivers rounded out the top ten, but Romain Grosjean slowed after just eight laps and didn't take part in the rest of the session. Grosjean's problem didn't impact on another driver, but it was Alonso who caused a red flag to bring a halt to proceedings.

Exiting the final corner, Alonso struggled to find a gear and coasted to a stop on the pit straight, causing the session to be stopped while the McLaren was removed. Alonso was one of the few drivers to set a supersoft time, ending the session 15th, 1.1s off the pace.

As the track went green again, rain started to fall at Turn 2 and worked its way over the complete track, leaving the two Mercedes drivers and Raikkonen to tiptoe back to the pits on slick tyres. Raikkonen even had an off-track excursion but managed to keep his Ferrari out of the wall.

With rain also possible during qualifying, a number of drivers took to the track in the closing 15 minutes to test conditions, with Carlos Sainz first out. Sainz went off at Turn 3 and then spun at Turn 7, but radioed in to say: "It's very slippery, but I don't care. We need to run."

A number of drivers went off in the wet conditions, with the majority running the full wet tyre. Vettel, Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenberg, Felipe Massa and Marcus Ericsson all had off-track moments, while Max Verstappen pushed hard in the conditions but showed impressive car control to keep his Toro Rosso between the white lines.

With the air temperature just 11 degrees at the Red Bull Ring and a lot of standing water on the track, qualifying is likely to start in wet conditions at 1400 local time.

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:09.994	16
02	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:10.011	16
03	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:10.177	12
04	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:10.221	14
05	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:10.332	23
06	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:10.408	18
07	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:10.417	14
08	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:10.436	23
09	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:10.576	12
10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:10.863	8
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:11.009	14
12	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:11.058	22
13	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:11.139	18
14	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1:11.139	14
15	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:11.168	13
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:11.819	10
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:11.906	9
18	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:12.616	16
19	Will Stevens	Manor	1:13.328	14
20	Roberto Merhi	Manor	1:13.960	8

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.