Russian Grand Prix - Free Practice Three

3rd & 7 37yd

Force India is a hard one to judge. They certainly haven't made the jump we saw from McLaren yesterday... Hulkenberg's five-place penalty will mean he needs to get into Q3 today to minimise the damage.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:16:45 AM
Button's car looking like a different one that looked so good yesterday, wobbling around the circuit as the Brit puts his car sixth with its first run. Magnussen down in eighth early on.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:17:17 AM
Button did warn yesterday about the containing evolution of this Sochi track. Early days though, so let's see what's happening.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:17:45 AM
Speaking of Magnussen, he has stopped on track and the session has been red-flagged. Looks like he had some sort of puncture in the middle of that flat-out left-hander and superbly managed to recover the car without parking it in the wall.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:19:01 AM
Red flags out, with Magnussen's car stuck to one side of the track. Not an ideal start to the day for McLaren.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:19:22 AM
With Hulk's penalty correct me if I am wrong but if the race in Japan goes another lap or two he most likely would have retired and not be penalized for qualifying

by east coast at work 10/11/2014 8:19:46 AM
@eastcoastatwork: Precisely. Had there not been count back at Suzuka he would have been classed as a retirement, and therefore not been penalised. Force India will be happy for the points though, I'm sure.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:21:03 AM
Magnussen's car is being removed from the track.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:21:10 AM
Nate will the pole-sitter start from the clear side of the track? And do you think that the 3rd on the grid can easily pass the 2nd?

by Kristiyan 10/11/2014 8:21:29 AM
@Kristiyan: The pole-sitter sits on the left-hand side of the track, so on the racing line but not the inside line for the first corner.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:21:53 AM
Disappointing form from Williams at the moment Nate, in comparison to recent practice runs. Do you think the car is suited to the track?

by Kesh 10/11/2014 8:21:57 AM
@Kesh: I don't know. Bottas was hampered a bit yesterday by an odd tyre blanket malfunction in FP1 but Massa said there was more to come today. Don't write them off yet.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:22:25 AM
Nate, are the speedbumps added to the Turn 2 runoff area potentially dangerous if a driver hits them at full speed?

by Ron 10/11/2014 8:22:40 AM
@Ron: Those have been adjusted this morning. I can't see them being big enough to launch a car, but enough to make it very, very uncomfortable if any driver runs across that corner.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:23:52 AM
It seems to me, that hamilton adjusts quicker to new or tricky conditions than Rosberg. What do you think?

by NanuXL 10/11/2014 8:23:54 AM
@NanuXL: I'm sure there will be some interesting opinions on this one but he definitely adjusted well yesterday, you could see him testing the limits of the track early in FP1 and slowly improving his times. Rosberg's flying lap was compromised, however, so I don't think we saw how close the Mercedes drivers are to each other.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:24:37 AM
Nate, how is the current pace. What is lewis's time?

by Pete8869 10/11/2014 8:24:39 AM
The current benchmark is 1:40.725. Rosberg is second, a tenth behind.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:24:52 AM
The track is green again, by the way, and Ricciardo is the first man to start a new flying lap.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:25:08 AM
How did alonso produce that stunning lap yesterday on his 7th lap on the soft tyre ?

by Sahil 10/11/2014 8:25:11 AM
@Sahil: Well that's a good example of how the tyres were behaving yesterday. A lot of drivers were surprised how good the tyres were and how little degradation there was. Usually you get one, maybe two, laps on the soft tyre before the drop off.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:25:47 AM
force india of hulk needed to change the gearbox..so i assume whther he'd retired or not, the penalty would be applied for this race...

by jdrafferty 10/11/2014 8:25:59 AM
@jdrafferty: Not if it had caused his retirement in Suzuka, no. But count back meant he finished sixth in that race, and changed a gearbox before its sixth consecutive event.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:26:26 AM
Bottas and Kobayashi both have
moments at Turn 4 but continue.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:26:50 AM
Will Ricciardo be penalised for his engine failure yesterday?

by Ron 10/11/2014 8:26:53 AM
@Ron: No, he was running an old engine intended to be used for Friday only.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:27:05 AM
I would assume that RIC will be getting a substantial wage increase next year

by Deerdale 10/11/2014 8:27:15 AM
Change of battery needed on Pastor's car, meanwhile Romain is 11th fastest. #FP3

by Renault Sport F1 via twitter 10/11/2014 8:27:42 AM
There's an update from Lotus on Maldonado's car.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:27:51 AM
Ham is a Genius when track conditions are difficult and unknown. Just a mechanical problem can stop him from winning.

by essa 10/11/2014 8:28:02 AM
how long medium tyres can survive on this track, on an average?

by jdrafferty 10/11/2014 8:28:03 AM
@jdrafferty: The medium tyre runs on Friday morning were very interesting. Usually you hear drivers complaining a lot about degradation during those sessions but it didn't seem to be the case. I can't give you specific details, but 'longer than usual' would be fair.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:28:44 AM
Bottas goes fourth, but is immediately knocked down a position by Alonso.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:29:02 AM
Massa has a little slide on the approach to Turn 13.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:29:09 AM
Wow, Ferrari matching Williams early on!

by Ron 10/11/2014 8:30:13 AM
@Ron: Well, Alonso matching Williams early on ;)

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:30:20 AM
Nate, starting from Turn 8 to turn 16, it looks pretty much a RBR favouring part with chicanes and turns. Is the Renault unit that bad or the RB10 is not that good? I see the other sister doing well on this circuit.

by Akash 10/11/2014 8:30:33 AM
Looks like a lot of drivers are struggling for grip this morning.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:31:04 AM
Vettel has a slide coming through the penultimate corner.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:31:32 AM
Thanks Nate, Bottas killing the first sector though!

by Ron 10/11/2014 8:31:59 AM
Bottas now goes P1, 0.070s clear of Hamilton. But the Brit has just started a lap of his own and just posted a 35.2s in the first sector, the fastest yet.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:32:37 AM
Maybe Pirelli brought their Russian Doll compound...

by mfbull 10/11/2014 8:32:40 AM
is bottas on medium tyres ?

by sfi fan 10/11/2014 8:32:52 AM
Everyone on medium tyres, yes.

by Nate Saunders 10/11/2014 8:32:58 AM
Is there an amount of batteries can be used during the season or are they just use as many as necessary?

by east coast at work 10/11/2014 8:33:08 AM

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