Monaco GP: Ferrari surprise in FP3 as Vettel tops time sheets

Seb Scott · May 23, 2015

It was a bitter sweet FP3 for Scuderia Ferrari who, to everyone's surprise, were fastest in the session, with Sebastian Vettel going ahead of both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. It wasn't a perfect session, however, as Kimi Raikkonen collided with the barrier at turn one, halting the session with a red flag.

Teams and drivers had a tall order this morning in Free Practice 3 as a result of Thursdays FP2 session being a washout, in which there was no running for 60 minutes and just under 15 minutes of dry running. This meant it was a very busy hour long session, as drivers still had set up work to do and preparation for qualifying later today.

With five minutes left in the session, Vettel stormed his SF15-T to top the sheets, setting a 1:16.143, two tenths slower than Nico Rosberg’s 2014 pole lap time. Unfortunately for Ferrari they also suffered a major setback, as Kimi Raikkonen suffered a handful of oversteer in the braking zone for turn one, resulting in the rear left of the Finn's Ferrari making contact with the barrier, retiring the car and red flagging the session temporarily.

Raikkonen had just set his fastest lap of the session and was on course to improve, due to tyre performance continually improving lap by lap. Raikkonen will be heading into qualifying with very little running and hardly any data to indicate an ideal setup, which is crucial for qualifying performance here where overtaking is very difficult. The other factor to consider for Raikkonen’s qualifying session is how much damage was done to his car. It was a direct impact to the wheel face, meaning a large load going along the driveshaft and into the differential, and damage could have been done to the suspension assembly.

Mercedes were on top for most of the session before Vettel set his fastest times. Nico Rosberg went out to respond improving from 0.6s down, however it wasn't enough to match the Ferrari as he finished 0.2s behind his fellow countryman Vettel. Lewis Hamilton tried to improve his lap time, complaining over team radio there was "something not right with the car" after declaring his final FP3 time after which it emerged in a radio message to the 2014 World Champion that his tyre pressures were too high.

Max Verstappen also had his first taste of a Monaco barrier, spinning on the entrance into the final corners at Anthony Noghes, coming away with only damage to his rear wing endplate. It was a lucky escape, as the incident could've been a lot worse for the rookie Toro Rosso driver, had he been closer to the barrier.

Every race it keeps being suggested but could McLaren finally have a substantial chance to be competitive with the midfield in qualifying. Monaco is a circuit that isn't limited by engine power nor aerodynamic grip, more favourable to grip and driver skill, which can be seen from Button and Alonso’s positioning achieving ninth and fourteenth respectively.