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FP3: Vettel tops final practice in Singapore

Published on 15 Sep 2018 13:00
1
By: Fergal Walsh

Sebastian Vettel has topped the final practice session at Singapore, setting an impressive lap time of 1:38.054. The German headed his teammate Kimi Raikkonen to make it a Ferrari one-two as the teams ran their final preparations before qualifying.

Raikkonen was over three-tenths of a second down, but the Mercedes' were even further behind. Lewis Hamilton ended the session in third place, half a second down on Vettel. Valtteri Bottas was less than half a tenth down on teammate Hamilton.

Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen filled out the third row, however Red Bull will be disappointed by the gap to the front. Both cars were over a second down on Vettel's time, despite hoping it would be able to compete with Ferrari and Mercedes this weekend.

Romain Grosjean once again demonstrated his impressive second half of the season pace, ending the session in P7. The Frenchman's future is yet to be decided, however it is likely that he will remain with Haas for the 2019 season.

Behind Grosjean was the Force India pair of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez. Ocon ousted his teammate by a tenth and a half, while Fernando Alonso followed the pink panthers to complete the top ten.

Nico Hulkenberg failed to break into the top ten after having a big snap in the final corner on his qualifying simulation run. The Renault driver was eleventh, ahead of Kevin Magnussen who will be hoping for a stronger result come qualifying.

The second Renault of Carlos Sainz was P13, ahead of Pierre Gasly and Stoffel Vandoorne. After being announced as a Ferrari driver for 2019, Charles Leclerc will be looking to impress and improve on his sixteenth place finish in FP3.

Brendon Hartley followed the Monegasque driver, while the final positions were filled out by Sergey Sirotkin, Marcus Ericsson and Lance Stroll. Qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix gets underway at 21:00 local time.

Fergal Walsh

F1 News Max Verstappen Valtteri Bottas Daniel Ricciardo Lewis Hamilton Sebastian Vettel Kimi Räikkönen Mercedes Ferrari

F1Grand Prix Singapore - Free practice 3

Marina Bay Street Circuit - 15 September 2018

Driver

Team

Time

Difference

#
1

Sebastian Vettel

Ferrari

1:38.054

19
2

Kimi Räikkönen

Ferrari

1:38.416

+0.362

16
3

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

1:38.558

+0.504

14
4

Valtteri Bottas

Mercedes

1:38.603

+0.549

17
5

Daniel Ricciardo

Red Bull Racing

1:39.186

+1.132

14
6

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing

1:39.265

+1.211

10
7

Romain Grosjean

Haas F1

1:39.747

+1.693

14
8

Esteban Ocon

Racing Point

1:40.073

+2.019

14
9

Sergio Perez

Racing Point

1:40.231

+2.177

14
10

Fernando Alonso

McLaren

1:40.254

+2.200

10
11

Nico Hülkenberg

Renault

1:40.450

+2.396

17
12

Kevin Magnussen

Haas F1

1:40.559

+2.505

13
13

Carlos Sainz jr

Renault

1:40.591

+2.537

14
14

Pierre Gasly

Toro Rosso

1:40.686

+2.632

16
15

Stoffel Vandoorne

McLaren

1:40.798

+2.744

15
16

Charles Leclerc

Sauber

1:40.915

+2.861

20
17

Brendon Hartley

Toro Rosso

1:41.562

+3.508

18
18

Sergey Sirotkin

Williams

1:41.884

+3.830

19
19

Marcus Ericsson

Sauber

1:41.953

+3.899

18
20

Lance Stroll

Williams

1:42.220

+4.166

18

Replies (1)

mcbhargav

Posts: 1,332
Grosjean is consistently performing good. Hope he would be able to convert it into a good chuck of points
- + 0
- Sep 15 2018 - 15:32