Nico Rosberg sweeps the Monaco GP practice – Formula 1 news
Nico Rosberg of Mercedes maintained his dominance in Monaco by topping the third and final practice session of the weekend. He was quickest in the Thursday practice sessions too, which clearly proves that he will be hard to match in the qualifiers.
This year, Mercedes have shown excellent qualifying form and rival teams feared their pace in the narrow streets of Monte Carlo.
Although Rosberg’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton has been unable to top any session, yet he will also be seen as a threat. The Briton was fifth fastest in P3 and could have improved his position, had there not been any drama towards the final few minutes of the
session.
The biggest incident of the afternoon was the accident of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who locked his front tyres and banged into the barriers. His car suffered massive damage, but luckily, the Brazilian remained unhurt.
After the session went green, Force India’s Adrian Sutil also hit the walls and he was followed by Romain Grosjean of Lotus, who repeated his Thursday crash. Despite that, the latter of the two drivers jumped up to second, as he had completed his flying
lap.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel had his KERS issue fixed and he posted the third fastest time of the session. He was followed by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who was the winner of the Spanish GP.
The 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen posted the sixth quickest lap in his Lotus. He would have been pleased to see his team-mate amongst the top-three and will be hoping to match him in terms of speed.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber did not have any issue throughout the session and he ended up seventh ahead of Force India’s Paul di Resta.
Pastor Maldonado proved once again that Williams have improved their performance over the past few races, as he clocked the ninth quickest time.
The top-10 was completed by Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber, who managed to keep both the McLaren drivers Sergio Perez and Jenson Button behind in 11th and 12thplaces respectively.
Looking at the all three practice sessions in Monaco, it is clear that Mercedes is the team to beat whereas Ferrari and Red Bull are not too far behind.
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