Free Practice 3 – Massa and Ferrari, to taunt Hamilton

It was the very last free practice session of the 2007 season, and the third of the weekend in Brazil, and it’s Felipe Massa, at home, who snatches the best time from under Hamilton’s nose. He leads the championship leader by 1/10 of a second and his teammate, Kimi Räikkönen, by 8/1000 of a second more. Alonso is only 8th, with a more complicated session than expected for the Spaniard. Results

The weather forecasts were not excellent for the qualifiers, but in the end, the session began with bright sunshine and a dry track.

After the top three men, we don’t find Fernando Alonso but rather Webber in the Red Bull, which seems to be working wonderfully on this new surface. Just like the Toro Rossos, as Vettel is 9th while Liuzzi is 11th.

Trulli takes 5th place ahead of an impressive performance by Barrichello at home; he is indeed 6th, ahead of Heidfeld in the first BMW and Fernando Alonso who completes the top 8. The Spaniard experienced some suspension issues on his car that had to be repaired by his mechanics.

Rosberg in the first full Williams rounds out the top 10 more than a second behind the leaders, in an extremely competitive session with 8 different teams present in the top 10.

The Renaults were in good shape yesterday, they appeared more unstable in this 3rd practice session. Fisichella is 12th, Kovalainen is 15th.

The Super Aguris are also far from the best times, but ahead of Robert Kubica in the second BMW, which experienced a hydraulic problem on his car and had to stop fifteen minutes before the end of the session. Therefore, he couldn’t set any lap time on soft tires and is only 20th.

After a few installation laps, the first problems appeared for Spyker. Sutil had to stop just after leaving the pits due to a breakdown, which was fixed a few dozen minutes later. The Spykers still couldn’t do anything, and their performances were once again very poor, finishing 21st and 22nd.

See the Free Practice 3 standings