F1-EL3: Romain Grosjean in the lead before the rain

The last free practice session for the Australian Grand Prix did not provide a dry track for long for the drivers since a downpour soaked the Albert Park circuit after 20 minutes. The teams took advantage of the start of the session to line up the laps on medium tires before the rain fell for 20 minutes. The single-seaters were able to test the rain and intermediate tires while taking advantage of a track which dried out at the end of the session.

Romain Grosjean achieved the best time of the last practice session with a time of 1’26”929. The Lotus driver finished 71 thousandths ahead of Fernando Alonso while Felipe Massa follows in third place three tenths behind. Paul di Resta and Kimi Räikkönen follow at six tenths while Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne are nine tenths behind. After a disappointing first day of testing in Melbourne, the drivers Toro Rosso seemed to regain color when the track was wet and must certainly hope for more showers this afternoon. Adrian Sutil ranks eighth, more than a second behind, while Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutiérrez finished with the same time (1’28”253).

Nico Rosberg then leads Sebastian Vettel who completed less than ten laps in this session. The pilot Red Bull suffered a hydraulic problem ten minutes from the checkered flag and was forced to stop at the side of the track. Mark Webber finished 13th, three seconds ahead of Jules Bianchi, who was still the fastest among the drivers of the new teams. THE Mclaren Jenson Button and Sergio Pérez finished more than six seconds behind without having taken advantage of the dry conditions at the start of the session to move up to a better position in the hierarchy.

Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix will begin at 17 p.m. (7 a.m. French time) and can be followed live on AUTOhebdo.fr.