GP Malaysia, Free Practice 3: Rosberg the fastest

Nico Rosberg set the best time in the third and final free practice session of the Malaysian Formula 1 GP. The Mercedes German waited until the final moments of the session to complete a lap on the Pirelli medium tyres, setting the best time of the weekend with 1.36.877.

Second and third times for the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, improved compared to Friday. Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean with Lotus complete the top 5 while Jenson Button is sixth with McLaren ahead of Pastor Maldonado's Williams.

Lewis Hamilton, the fastest yesterday, went off the track at turn 14 and only completed eight laps, finishing ninth.

Ferrari at the back: Fernando Alonso is 13th, Felipe Massa 18th.

The rain arrived a few minutes before the start of the session although testing began on an almost dry track. However, the first phase of the session had a slow start due to the presence of damp patches which forced the teams to stay in the pits. After the first 20 minutes Bruno Senna completed the first flying lap and shortly after it was Grosjean's turn to take the lead ahead of Raikkonen.

Vettel then jumped into the lead with 36 minutes to go, then overtaken by Webber in 1.38.145. The two took turns again and Maldonado was also briefly in command. Hamilton returned to the track in the last 10 minutes to immediately set the second fastest time. Vettel shortly took the lead before Rosberg's best time, who remained undefeated at the end.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m36.877 16 2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m37.320s + 0.443 15 3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m37.338s + 0.461 12 4. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m37.356 .0.479s + 13 5 1. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 37.382m0.505s + 13 6 1. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 37.404m0.527s + 12 7 1. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 37.455m0.578s + 13 8 1. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 37.663m0.786 .15s + 9 1 37.776. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 0.899m8s + 10 1 37.977. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1.100m17s + 11 1 38.091. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1.214m20s + 12 1 38.178. Sergio Perez Sauber- Ferrari 1.301m15s + 13 1 38.246. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1.369m17s + 14 1 38.285. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Verdes 1.408m16s + 15 1 38.423. Daniel Ricciardo Red-Ferrari 1.546m13s + 16 1 38.640. Jean- Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1.763m11s + 17 1 38.794. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1.917m18s + 18 1 39.20. Felipe Massa Ferrari 2.332m16$s + 19 1 39.704. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 2.827m15s + 20 1 40.189. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 3.312m14s + 21 1 41.901. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 5.024m14s + 22 1 42.007. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 5.130m14s + 23 1 42.464. Pedro de la Rosa H RT- Cosworth 5.587m14s + 24 1 43.378. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 6.501m17s + XNUMX XNUMX