Brazilian GP: Aldo Costa cars 1-2 again in FP3

Nico Rosberg
Nico Rosberg

There was again less than a tenth of second between Mercedes’ two title contenders in Saturday morning’s final practice for the Formula 1 Grande Premio do Brasil 2016, but this time it was championship leader Nico Rosberg with a slight advantage over teammate Lewis Hamilton, both driving the superior Aldo Costa designed Mercedes.

The Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace was damp at the start of the 60-minute session, but rapidly dried as Sebastian Vettel went third from Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen, just two-tenths off Rosberg’s pace. Then came the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, all within around half a second of the Mercedes.

The Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were seventh and ninth respectively, split by an impressive Jolyon Palmer in the Renault. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso completed the top ten.

There was bad news for Sauber, with Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson rooted near the bottom of the timesheet, with the latter completing just one lap before the team decided the Swede will need an engine change ahead of qualifying.

Results

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:11.740 +0.000s 19
2 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:11.833 +0.093s 21
3 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:11.959 +0.219s 14
4 7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:12.027 +0.287s 16
5 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:12.077 +0.337s 19
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:12.287 +0.547s 21
7 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams Mercedes 1:12.614 +0.874s 27
8 30 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:12.968 +1.228s 19
9 19 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 1:12.990 +1.250s 26
10 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 1:13.002 +1.262s 12
11 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India Mercedes 1:13.203 +1.463s 14
12 11 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 1:13.231 +1.491s 19
13 20 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:13.255 +1.515s 15
14 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso Ferrari 1:13.293 +1.553s 20
15 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:13.344 +1.604s 15
16 21 Esteban Gutierrez Haas Ferrari 1:13.596 +1.856s 16
17 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso Ferrari 1:13.609 +1.869s 13
18 22 Jenson Button McLaren Honda 1:13.750 +2.010s 9
19 94 Pascal Wehrlein MRT Mercedes 1:13.972 +2.232s 20
20 12 Felipe Nasr Sauber Ferrari 1:13.992 +2.252s 14
21 31 Esteban Ocon MRT Mercedes 1:14.222 +2.482s 21
22 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari No Time 1