Frustrating P12 for Max in final practice session

Published on 25 March 2017 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen was only twelfth quickest in the final practice session for the Australian Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel raised the hopes of a two-way fight with Mercedes for pole position by lapping the Albert Park street circuit quickest. The Ferrari driver posted a 1:23.380, being nearly half a second than Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton.

At the start of the session we see a fairly unknown driver in the Sauber alongside Marcus Ericsson; Antonio Giovinazzi, GP2’s 2016 runner-up has replaced Pascal Wehrlein. The German is struggling too much with his back injury sustained at last year’s Race of Champions.

As the pitlane opens, a couple of rain drops are spotted, but not enough to pose a serious wet weather threat. Instead, everyone heads out slicks, mostly the softs.

Kimi Raikkonen is the first to hit trouble. The Finn is forced to stop his Ferrari after suffering a puncture.

Once the super-softs are bolted on, it’s Sebastian Vettel that sets the pace, followed by the Mercedes drivers. Max has also switched to fastest Pirelli compound available. He aborts his first quick run and notifies the team that the handling of the car is far from optimal.

With ten minutes on the clock, there is a red flag; Lance Stroll has crashed his Williams into a wall, forcing his mechanics to work through lunch in order to get his car ready for qualifying. Meanwhile the clocks keeps ticking without the red flag being removed, meaning Max did not get a chance to do a proper qualifying simulation.

Australian Grand Prix - Alber Park - Saturday 25 March 2017

FREE PRACTICE 3 RESULTS

01  5 Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari                     1:23.380          12
02 77 Valtteri Bottas     Mercedes                    1:23.859 +0.479s  12
03 44 Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes                    1:23.870 +0.490s  12
04  7 Kimi Räikkönen      Ferrari                     1:23.988 +0.608s  10
05 27 Nico Hulkenberg     Renault                     1:25.063 +1.683s  10
06  3 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:25.092 +1.712s  15
07  8 Romain Grosjean     Haas Ferrari                1:25.581 +2.201s  11
08 55 Carlos Sainz        Toro Rosso                  1:25.948 +2.568s  11
09 26 Daniil Kvyat        Toro Rosso                  1:26.049 +2.669s  11
10 20 Kevin Magnussen     Haas Ferrari                1:26.138 +2.758s  11
11 19 Felipe Massa        Williams Mercedes           1:26.237 +2.857s  15
12 33 Max Verstappen      Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:26.269 +2.889s  7
13 11 Sergio Perez        Force India Mercedes        1:26.457 +3.077s  12
14 14 Fernando Alonso     McLaren Honda               1:26.556 +3.176s  7
15  2 Stoffel Vandoorne   McLaren Honda               1:26.699 +3.319s  9
16 31 Esteban Ocon        Force India Mercedes        1:27.103 +3.723s  16
17 18 Lance Stroll        Williams Mercedes           1:27.327 +3.947s  12
18  9 Marcus Ericsson     Sauber Ferrari              1:27.402 +4.022s  10
19 30 Jolyon Palmer       Renault                     1:28.320 +4.940s  12
20 36 Antonio Giovinazzi  Sauber Ferrari              1:28.583 +5.203s  18 

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