In bright, sunny conditions Lewis Hamilton sent McLaren to the top of the timesheets in the final practice session before this afternoon’s qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix. It was the first totally dry period of the weekend and Hamilton’s time of 1:25.681 is the early benchmark.
Showing their pre-season pace was no fluke Lotus sit comfortably inside the top three with their returning F1 driver posting a time of 1:25.758. But it wasn’t the 2007 World Champion, Kimi Raikonnen, instead the former Renault driver, Romain Grosjean, who was just 0.077 seconds behind.
Australia’s best chance of a home win in Melbourne rests with Mark Webber and he has indicated his Red Bull will be at the pointy end of qualifying by setting the third fastest time in FP3. Webber’s best lap of 1:25.900 was only 0.225s behind the leading McLaren.
Jenson Button was fourth, with the Mercedes pairing of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, despite an excursion in the kitty litter, finishing fifth and sixth respectively.
Sebastian Vettel provided light drama when he went into the gravel with 15 minutes of the session remaining. He was unable to rejoin but the dual world champion still managed with seventh fastest time with a 1:26.211.
Pastor Maldonado will have impressed his team boss Frank Williams by putting the Fw34 in eighth. Sergio Perez will also ensure Peter Sauber has a grin on his face after completing practice with the ninth fastest time. Daniel Riccardo rounded out the top 10 some 1.042 seconds behind Hamilton.
We expect there’ll be glum faces in the Ferrari pit with Fernando Alonso back in sixteenth (1:27.323) and Felipe Massa eighteenth (1:28.023). You’d reckon it will be tough for them to fight their way into Q3 from there.
HRT also struggled and they may find it difficult to post a time within 107% of the fastest Q1 qualifier which could put them in jeopardy for Sunday’s race.
You can see a full list of times after the break and we’ll be back with more after the qualifying.
One reply on “AusGP: Hamilton quickest in Saturday practice”
Great work by both of the STR drivers!