2014 Brazilian GP Practice Three: Nico Rosberg faster than Lewis Hamilton again
Three out of three for Rosberg over spinning Hamilton in practice; Felipe Massa runs strongly for Williams; Threat of rain showers for qualy
Tuesday 25 November 2014 17:50, UK
Nico Rosberg provided further evidence to suggest that there could yet be life in his title challenge by completing a clean sweep of fastest practice times ahead of Lewis Hamilton in Practice Three in Brazil.
The German, who held a consistent two-tenths of a second advantage over his championship-leading team-mate on Friday, continued to hold sway around the undulating Interlagos in P3, this time by one-tenth, in the all-Mercedes battle to set himself up for a shot at a tenth pole of 2014 in qualifying.
Like one week ago in Austin, Hamilton appeared to be taking more time to get his W05 exactly to his liking and the Briton followed a lock-up at Turn Eight with a half spin when he appeared to brake too hard for Turn One several laps later while on heavier-fuel runs at the start of the session.
Nonetheless, Mercedes once more finished in a comfortable one-two on the timesheet with Rosberg’s impressive 1:10.446 lap still four tenths faster than the best non-W05 time set by local boy Felipe Massa for Williams.
The rain may have stayed away for final practice but a major thunderstorm in Sao Paulo overnight had meant that the tyre rubber that had been laid down on the new brand-new asphalt by the F1 cars on Friday was washed away, essentially resetting the race weekend.
With the prospect of rain showers remaining for the later qualifying hour, P3 took place in significantly cooler conditions than P2, when drivers were finding that their Pirelli soft tyres were blistering.
Two-times Interlagos winner Massa had been most vocal in the weeks leading up to the race for Pirelli, who initially selected the hard and medium compound for this weekend, to bring the soft and the Brazilian certainly appeared to be liking
Massa grew up a stone's throw away from the circuit and in P3 he once more underlined his local knowhow by outpacing team-mate Valtteri Bottas by two tenths. Daniel Ricciardo was a little further back in fifth but team-mate Sebastian Vettel was once more struggling in the sister Red Bull, the German down in 11th.
Having admitted McLaren were "nowhere" on day one, Jenson Button's prediction that the team's MP4-29 was more competitive than it initially appeared proved accurate as he moved up to sixth, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen who was once more the lead Ferrari.
Fernando Alonso was only just adrift, however, and sat out the final few minutes of the session amid suggestions that Ferrari are carefully managing their engine life at the tail end of the season. The Spaniard, at the limit of all his penalty-free engine elements, missed the final phase of Friday when the rear of his F14 T caught fire.
