Chinese GP, Free Practice 3: Hamilton precedes Button and the two Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton achieved the best time in the third free practice session of the Chinese Formula 1 GP. In Shanghai the McLaren Mercedes driver booked his third consecutive pole although he will be forced to move back five positions on the grid due to the penalty for the gearbox replacement. However, a possible pole in qualifying would allow the Englishman to limit the damage.

Hamilton's best time came during a qualifying run on soft Pirelli tires at the end of the session with the Englishman managing to overtake his teammate, Jenson Button, by just a tenth.

Behind them the two Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. Fifth and ninth time for the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. The German has chosen to use the old exhaust specification while Webber will continue to use the latest evolution. The two hid their real qualifying pace.

Excellent seventh time for Pastor Maldonado with Williams, ahead of the two Saubers of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi.

The Ferraris did poorly: Alonso only 15th, Massa even 18th.

F1 Chinese GP Times and results Free Practice 3

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m35.940s 13 2. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m36.093s + 0.123 12 3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m36.389s + 0.449 16 4. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m36.512s + 0.572 17 5. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m36.635s + 0.695 16 6. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m36.765s + 0.825 17 7. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m36.781s + 0.841 19 8. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m36.880. 0.940s + 17 9 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 37.039m1.099s + 15 10 1. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 37.061m1.121s + 17 11 1. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 37.237m1.297s + 16 12 1. Romain Gros jean Lotus -RENAULT 37.274M1.334S + 19 13 1. Paul Di Resta Force India-Mercedes 37.288m1.348s + 16 14 1. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 37.425m1.485s + 14 15 1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 37.465m1.525s + 12 16 1. Jean -Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 37.493m1.553s + 13 17 1. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 37.628m1.688s + 14 18 1. Felipe Massa Ferrari 37.831m1.891s + 14 19 1. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 38.701m2.761s + 19 20 1. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 39.198m3.258s + 19 21 1. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 39.796m3.856s + 18 22 1. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 40.048m4.108s + 17 23 1. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 41.263m5.323s + 14 24 1. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 41.499m5.559s + 18 XNUMX