Australian GP 2014, Free Practice 3: Rosberg in the lead ahead of Button and Alonso

It's still a Mercedes that gets the best time of the session. Nico Rosberg, with a lap of 1:29375, achieved the best performance of Free Practice 3 of the 2014 Australian Grand Prix. The German was the only one to go below the 1:30 mark. Behind him, Button was one second and four tenths behind, followed by Fernando Alonso.

At the green light Vergne, Bottas, Maldonado, Gutierrez, Chilton, Magnussen, Ericsson, Kobayashi, Kvyat, Massa, Grosjean, Bianchi and Alonso were immediately on track for the installation lap. The two Lotuses immediately entered the track to try to lap as much as possible.
The first time of the session goes to Vergne who completes a pass in 1:35.505. Radio problems for Raikkonen which were resolved promptly.

With just under half an hour to go, here are the top 5: Hamilton, Rosberg, Massa, Alonso, Vettel. In the final, almost all the drivers took to the track using Soft compound tyres. The latter should give a lap performance advantage of around 2 seconds.

Technical tests at Red Bull. With 2 minutes to go, Vettel informed the pits that the car was "not accelerating", a sign that they were probably trying some particular setting that didn't work as expected.

Times of Free Practice 3 of the 2014 Australian GP

Gianluca Latina