No time set by Max in washed-out FP3

Published on 02 September 2017 by Stefan Meens

In the third and final free practice, only seven drivers clocked a lap of the famous Autodromo Nazionale Monza after rain curtailed the session. The Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo headed out for a reconnaissance lap, but decided not the set a time. Felipe Massa was quickest, followed by his Williams team mate Lance Stroll and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg.

“We only did an installation lap, to prepare for qualifying but the rest of the training we had to abandon. But it’s not a problem; we expected it so it didn’t mess up our program”, explained Max post-training.

Previewing qualifying, the Dutchman remained realistic: “It doesn’t really matter if it rains or is dry. Because of our grid penalties, we’ll start from the back anyway.”

Although the session timer started at the normal time of 11am local time – there has to be a two hour gap between FP3 and qualifying, the circuit was not cleared to race.

Instead, the safety car came out several times to survey the track conditions. At the halfway mark, the conditions improved and by 11.44am, the session was started.

All drivers headed out for a sighting laps, but in the end, only seven went on to record a lap time.

Italian Grand Prix - Autodromo Nazionale Monza - Saturday 2 September

FREE PRACTICE 3 RESULTS

01 19 Felipe Massa        Williams Mercedes           1:40.660          4
02 18 Lance Stroll        Williams Mercedes           1:40.888 +0.228s  4
03 27 Nico Hulkenberg     Renault                     1:41.491 +0.831s  4
04 55 Carlos Sainz        Toro Rosso                  1:41.515 +0.855s  5
05 30 Jolyon Palmer       Renault                     1:44.369 +3.709s  4
06  9 Marcus Ericsson     Sauber Ferrari              1:44.701 +4.041s  3
07 26 Daniil Kvyat        Toro Rosso                  1:45.033 +4.373s  4
08  3 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer                     1
09 33 Max Verstappen      Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer                     1
10  5 Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari                                       3
11  7 Kimi Räikkönen      Ferrari                                       4
12 14 Fernando Alonso     McLaren Honda                                 2
13  2 Stoffel Vandoorne   McLaren Honda                                 4
14  8 Romain Grosjean     Haas Ferrari                                  1
15 20 Kevin Magnussen     Haas Ferrari                                  1
16 31 Esteban Ocon        Force India Mercedes                          2
17 94 Pascal Wehrlein     Sauber Ferrari                                2
18 77 Valtteri Bottas     Mercedes                                      1
19 11 Sergio Perez        Force India Mercedes                          1
20 44 Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes                                      1

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