Hamilton advantage cut to 0.25s in FP3

Lewis Hamilton completed a clean sweep of the practice sessions for the Grand Prix of Europe as Nico Rosberg cut the gap to 0.25s in FP3.

The defending champion appeared to be slightly on the back foot for much of the session and had to abort his first attempt on new supersoft tyres when he ran wide at Turn 1. However, on the next lap Hamilton managed to jump to the top of the times with a 1:44.352 to lead Rosberg by 0.258s.

Rosberg had been 0.7s off the pace in FP2 while suffering a power unit failure, but was more competitive on Saturday as the two Mercedes drivers held an advantage of over a second over the rest of the field.

Ferrari had appeared quick in the middle of the session with Sebastian Vettel just 0.2s off the pace but the final qualifying simulations saw a big gap appear, with Nico Hulkenberg continuing Force India's strong form with the third quickest time, 1.188s off the pace.

It was a bittersweet session for Force India, however, as Sergio Perez crashed on his final lap. Perez had matched Hamilton's first sector - the fastest of the day - but lost the rear of his car getting on the power exiting Turn 15 and ripped the right rear wheel off his car in similar fashion to Daniel Ricciardo on Friday.

The Perez incident ensured the session ended under the red flag but few appeared to be improving at the time. Daniel Ricciardo was fourth quickest on a 1:45.620 but completed just 13 laps - nine fewer than Rosberg - as he climbed out of his car with ten minutes remaining.

Ricciardo was just 0.010s quicker than former Red Bull team-mate Vettel, with Perez ending the session 0.1s further back in sixth place despite his crash. Max Verstappen, Jenson Button, Daniil Kvyat and Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top ten, with Button complaining he was blocked by Hamilton late on.

Raikkonen's session was also hampered by a power unit issue, with the Finn complaining he had no power exiting corners as he limped back to the pits. Ferrari did rectify the problem but missed out on some running.

While Raikkonen had his running interrupted, fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas suffered even more as he missed out on the whole session. Bottas was returning to the pits at the end of his installation lap when he ran over a loose drain cover, puncturing a hole in his sidepod and ruling him out of FP3.

Felipe Massa therefore had to carry out all of the running for Williams but he too hit the wall at Turn 15, tagging his right rear tyre against the barrier before limping back to the pits. Massa ended the session in 14th place with Williams unable to show its true pace.

The Bottas incident will cause further concern after kerb problems needed rectifying on Friday. Track workers removed kerbs at Turns 6 and 12 following cuts to tyres in FP1, while the pit lane entry was also extended overnight. Another worrying moment saw a cat run across the track during the session, though it escaped unharmed.

AS IT HAPPENED: Grand Prix of Europe - FP3

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