Melbourne Practice 3: Hamilton tops as Vettel and Schumi beach it
17 March, 2012
Michael Schumacher's practice session ended in the Albert Park gravel
Mar.17 (PVM) Lewis Hamilton driving the McLaren MP4-27 gave a glimpse of his hand by setting the fastest lap in the final free practice session of the Australian Grand Prix weekend at Albert Park during a session which saw reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel and seven times champion Michael Schumacher end up in the gravel.
Lewis Hamilton fastest at the end of Free Practice 3
Thankfully, after a miserable opening day, sunshine prevailed on day two over Melbourne as fans streamed in for what is set to be a very intriguing day.
Hamilton went top of the timing screens with a lap late on in the session which knocked Lotus driver Romain Grosjean down to second place where he remained until the chequered flag came out a few minutes later. But Grosjean’s pace also gave a hint of the E20′s capabilities.
Local hero Mark Webber, in the Red Bull RB8, gave the crowd a reason to feel confident ahead of the afternoon’s qualifying session by setting the third best time.
Next up on the timing sheets were a trio of Mercedes powered cars with Jenson Button fourth quickest in the McLaren, followed by Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher in the handy W03 – fifth and sixth respectively.
Schumacher was heard complaining about an aggressive rear wing prior to losing the car entering Turn 9 and ending up in the gravel, where he remained with five minutes left in the session.
Fernando Alonso in the F2012
BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson explained, “What Michael is trying to say when he talks about an aggressive rear wing is that when you open the [DRS] flap the airflow separates and there’s a big drag reduction. When he closes the flap, the airflow wasn’t re-attaching as consistently as it should. It looks like the rear wheels locked suddenly, which could be the tyres going away on the long run, or it could be the airflow not re-attaching in time.”
Ten minutes earlier, around the 45 minutes mark, with less than a dozen laps racked up, Sebastian Vettel lost the back end of the Red Bull RB8 entering Turn 6, becoming another victim of the Melbourne gravel. Problem for the world champion is that he has yet to sample the soft tyre which appears to be around half a second up on the mediums. Vettel, who was nevertheless seventh fastest in the session, is no stranger to practice setbacks, he normally bounces back by taking pole. Watch this space!
Eighth quickest was Pastor Maldonado in the Williams FW34, followed by Sergio Perez in the Sauber C31 and Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso STR7 making it two Aussies in the top ten.
Big hitters out of the top ten were Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen in 12th and the Ferrari pair Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa way down in 16th and 17th.
Pedro de la Rosa did some meaningful laps at last in the HRT
The final session has done nothing to reveal a pecking order ahead of qualifying, although McLaren and Lotus have given hints - but it appears that the top guns are keeping their powder dry until the afternoon’s qualifying session.
The usual suspects were at the bottom of the timing sheets, witht he brand new Marussia MR01s languishing five seconds off Hamilton’s best, with Timo Glock 21st and rookie Charles Pic 22nd, half a second down on his experienced team mate.
For the HRT squad there was progress as both drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan managed to do laps in their out the box F112 – albeit around 7.5 seconds down on the top pace.
For both these teams Melbourne is their first opportunity to test. Qualifying for the race will be a major achievement, especially for HRT who seem woefully behind schedule.
Free Practice 3 – Melbourne, 17 March 2012
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:25.681 | 18 | |
| 2 | 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:25.758 | 0.077 | 21 |
| 3 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:25.900 | 0.219 | 20 |
| 4 | 3 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:25.906 | 0.225 | 17 |
| 5 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:25.929 | 0.248 | 23 |
| 6 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:26.078 | 0.397 | 14 |
| 7 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:26.211 | 0.530 | 12 |
| 8 | 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:26.470 | 0.789 | 17 |
| 9 | 15 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:26.632 | 0.951 | 20 |
| 10 | 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 1:26.723 | 1.042 | 17 |
| 11 | 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 1:26.733 | 1.052 | 15 |
| 12 | 9 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 1:26.737 | 1.056 | 19 |
| 13 | 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:26.755 | 1.074 | 21 |
| 14 | 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:27.029 | 1.348 | 23 |
| 15 | 19 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 1:27.119 | 1.438 | 20 |
| 16 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:27.323 | 1.642 | 19 |
| 17 | 11 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:27.428 | 1.747 | 22 |
| 18 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:28.023 | 2.342 | 19 |
| 19 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1:28.341 | 2.660 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1:28.702 | 3.021 | 11 |
| 21 | 24 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:30.728 | 5.047 | 13 |
| 22 | 25 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:31.225 | 5.544 | 14 |
| 23 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 1:33.114 | 7.433 | 12 |
| 24 | 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1:33.261 | 7.580 | 13 |
Related posts:
- Melbourne Practice 2: Schumacher fastest in topsy turvy session
- Melbourne Practice 1: Button quickest from Hamilton
- Practice 2: Hamilton tops as Vettel crashes
- Practice 1: Hamilton fastest as Vettel chases
- Practice 1: Hamilton tops as McLaren pair fly
Sorry Butterfly, How many years have Ferrari started early on the car, And this is what they have to show? It’s clear they can no longer deliver the goods.
Ferrari need to invest cash now, and lots of it.
I don’t even know if their aero tools are good enough to develop further.
Maybe start with a bulldozer at the Ferrari wind-tunnel, followed by building a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility there including CFD, then bring in a few brainiacs from Britain to work on the aero, and then start working on a new car.
That would fix the problems, but I’m not sure LdM wants to do that.
Soooooooooo wat do we do now, Start work on 2013?
Kinda sad to see.
@McLaren fan:
OMG… I guess you’re sort of right about that
@ Butterfly:
When all said and done you have called it as it is that car is as bad as the HRT in fact Fernando could do better with the HRT just stick the Ferrari power in it.
okay. that was just me. its game over for ferrari. im predicting a mclaren win and mercs podium. redbull aint happy at all.
I got to hand it to butterfly. . . . He calls it.
Watching Qualy now and it doesn’t look good for the red team.
Might as well start packing now, Domenicali.
a lot of Ferrari bashers round here…
everyone at Ferrari has already expressed and has been well documented that they will need more time with the 2012 which means they’ll need maybe 3-4-5 races? seems like a lot of people dont know this or fail to comprehend what that means
Would be a serious handicap even if the car turns the corner and ends up being a contender. Let qualifying begin
isit just only me who feels that ferrari are quite quietly confident?
imo, i think ferrari is a team that needs alot of testing to improve. they have never gotten over the ban on in-season testing.
and that their simulations and CFD facilities and stuffs are not yet the best.
Rory Byrne said during the winter that he’s convinced the car will be competitive. That means either he has no clue what a competitive F1 car is (impossible) or the wind-tunnel and CFD give (really) bad results.
If the latter is true, then we’re back to 2011 when the F150 turned out to be crap because of the wind-tunnel.
So these guys have tons of money but do nothing with them: no R&D, no infrastructure development, no nothing.
Is Domenicali’s sallary something like 100M EUR per year or something, because I don’t know where all that money goes.
@Butterfly, correct. And They can’t blame the engine. The STR and Sauber are both performing well for mid-level teams. At least this year will mark the end of bad Ferrari aero, I think. Fry and Domenicali are as fired as it gets if this is the best they can do with the resources they have.
The Ferrari is a goddamn train-wreck.
They’re probably work on it for a few months then abandon it and start working on the next car. They do this every year.
No aero research & development, just forget about it and try to be creative from what Tombazis has learned in college. Sure, that will work, just look at the F2012.
This is Domenicali’s legacy at Ferrari.
This makes it official. The Ferrari is crap right now. Merc, Mclaren, Lotus, and Red Bull all look great. Even the Sauber, with the same engine, is a better car than Ferrari though.