FP3 in Malaysia: Mercedes shatters the morale of everybody else!

Mercedes shows they real pace today after yesterday they were sandbagging really hard. Rosberg tops Hamilton with 0,232s, but smash Ferrari of Raikkonen with 1,148s.

Really bad day for McLaren at the office after they showed a strong, reliable pace on Friday.

Ricciardo was told that other cars are finding ‘1.5s’ on the medium tyres, a big improvement from yesterday. Much more grip on the circuit.

Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado continued to struggle with the ill-handling E22, prompting the Frenchman to describe the rear end of the car as “a disaster” upon his return to the pit lane.

Nico Hulkenberg showed some pace in his Force India to finish fifth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso.

Below the results:

Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps
1 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:39.008 13
2 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:39.240 0.232 13
3 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:40.156 1.148 13
4 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:40.387 1.379 14
5 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:40.523 1.515 15
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:40.686 1.678 14
7 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:40.736 1.728 14
8 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:40.781 1.773 20
9 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1:40.891 1.883 20
10 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1:41.029 2.021 15
11 26 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault 1:41.182 2.174 18
12 25 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault 1:41.441 2.433 18
13 99 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1:41.552 2.544 15
14 21 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1:42.041 3.033 17
15 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:42.749 3.741 16
16 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1:43.539 4.531 20
17 4 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1:43.977 4.969 16
18 17 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1:44.170 5.162 18
19 9 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1:44.457 5.449 12
20 10 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1:46.015 7.007 7
21 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 2:05.555 26.547 4
22 20 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes No time 5