Spa-Francorchamps, FP3: Bottas quickest in wet/dry final practice

Bottas takes over at Spa

By Franck Drui

23 August 2014 - 12:10
Spa-Francorchamps, FP3: Bottas (...)

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas went quickest in the final practice for the Belgian GP as tricky weather conditions led to teams leaving most of their running until late in the session.

The Finn set a lap of 1:49.465 in the final dry minutes of a session that had started in damp conditions not wet enough for intermediate tyres but not quite dry enough for slick tyres.

It meant that the bulk of the session saw little running with only backmarkers testing the early conditions. Marussia’s Jules Bianchi topped the timesheet for half the session, ahead of team-mate Max Chilton and Caterham’s Andre Lotterer.

Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez was the first to move to slick tyres and when the Mexican went four seconds faster than on his run, it was the cue for action up and down the pit lane.

Bottas’s lap came in a frantic final few minutes in which a number of drivers attempted a soft-tyre run. The Williams driver finished 0.268s ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, while championship leader Nico Rosberg was third, with a lap 0.274s down on Bottas’.

Kimi Raikkonen was fourth for Ferrari ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and the other Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.

Pos.DriverTeamTimeLaps
01 Valtteri Bottas Williams Mercedes 1:49.465 12
02 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Renault 1:49.733 9
03 Nico Rosberg Mercedes AMG 1:49.739 13
04 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:49.817 9
05 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG 1:49.817 13
06 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:49.890 9
07 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso Renault 1:49.893 11
08 Jenson Button McLaren Mercedes 1:50.203 11
09 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 1:50.423 11
10 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso Renault 1:50.535 10
11 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 1:50.592 12
12 Kevin Magnussen McLaren Mercedes 1:50.748 11
13 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Renault 1:50.814 10
14 Nico Hulkenberg Force India Mercedes 1:50.866 11
15 Adrian Sutil Sauber Ferrari 1:50.962 12
16 Romain Grosjean Lotus Renault 1:51.509 9
17 Pastor Maldonado Lotus Renault 1:51.610 10
18 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber Ferrari 1:51.898 15
19 Jules Bianchi Marussia Ferrari 1:52.457 14
20 Max Chilton Marussia Ferrari 1:52.984 14
21 Marcus Ericsson Caterham Renault 1:54.294 11
22 André Lotterer Caterham Renault 1:55.008 13

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