Saturday 5 September 2015

Italian Grand Prix 2015 - Practice 3 Analysis. Vettel splits Mercedes as morning rain disrupts running.

In the last practice session for the 2015 Italian Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton again secures P1 but the gap to Ferrari closes down to 0.264 seconds.

The running in the session was mainly disrupted by a big early morning downpour which saw the first times set on the intermediate tires. The teams managed to have a qualifying simulation in the last 10 minutes of the session in which good was shown by Vettel, both Williams and even the two Saubers. Whereas Force India opted for a race simulation which saw them finish in 8th and 12th.
Rain disrupted a lot of running in FP3.
The biggest moment of the session was definitely Daniel Ricciardo who stopped on the outside of the Turn 4 chicane. "It's something terminal on the engine, it unfortunately looks like an engine change" said Red Bulls Christian Horner. The engine was brand new and it is going to promote more penalties and waste a fresh engine. This deepens the cut that Red Bull already have this weekend and they will definitely be struggling on Sunday.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo had a session ending engine failure
Williams finally began to show the pace they are capable of with Bottas leading Massa by 2 tenths in 4th in 5th. Williams will be hoping to get a car onto the 2nd row of the grid and spoil the party of Ferrari with Kimi Raikkonen clearly under performing after he only managed 7th behind Pastor Maldonado.
Williams are looking like a strong prospect for qualifying.
It was a positive day for Sauber as there Ferrari power unit is beginning to work well with Ericsson finishing 9th and Nasr in 11th. The Swiss outfit will be looking for more points to take a fight to the struggling Toro Rosso in the constructors championship for 7th place. A good race is the most crucial part of the weekend for Sauber as they will instantly out qualify the two Toro Rosso's which are set for big grid drops.

Nico Rosberg will have work to do in qualifying as Sebastian Vettel managed to creep into the P2 slot. However Mercedes may have been running heavier fuel which would ultimately make there pace slower.

Qualifying is now just under 2 hours away. Lets not kid ourselves as we know that Lewis Hamilton will be on pole position. The real question is who is going to take P2? Can Sebastian Vettel mount that challenge? Can Williams get a car on the front row? Could Force India spoil the party after strong Friday pace?

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All images courtesy of Formula1.com

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