Malaysia – Free Practice 3: Rosberg and Mercedes dominate Räikkönen and Vettel, McLaren suffers

During the first half hour, Marcus Ericsson is the first to hit the track. All the drivers start, for this beginning of the session, on hard tires (orange). The event is seeing Pastor Maldonado, in the Lotus, take to the track, having completed only two laps since the start of the weekend; moreover, the Venezuelan goes a bit wide in turn 8. The track is very slippery, and the drivers are having a lot of difficulty keeping their cars on the Sepang circuit. Kimi Räikkönen, after 20 minutes, is the first leading driver to take the lead. On Kevin Magnussen’s side, there’s a reported issue with the power of the McLaren MP4-29, which nearly caused a collision with Felipe Massa in turn 2. Hamilton takes the lead of the session at this point, with Rosberg and him exchanging the leadership. The Mercedes team seems to have regained their timing comfort.

At the start of the second part of this session, Maldonado is the first driver to use the medium (white) tires. The Lotus cars are running, which is already interesting information. However, on the McLaren side, the lap counter shows nothing promising. It’s Ferrari and Mercedes’ turn to put on the white tires. Räikkönen takes the lead but quickly, Rosberg and Hamilton take the top spots: 1:39.008 for the German and 1:39.240 for the Brit, pushing the Ferrari back by a second; they even have the luxury, in a one-hour session, of finishing early. At McLaren, Magnussen does not seem able to record any time, as the Woking team’s day appears to be affected by engine problems. Could this be the Achilles’ heel of the star brand?

On the Lotus side, the tests are not conclusive: « There is no performance with the diffuser. It’s an absolute disaster, » says Grosjean in a more than detached and monotone tone, following an outing in the gravel. His engineer, Ayao Komatsu, tells him that he’ll switch back to the old version before qualifying.

The session concludes with the best time from Nico Rosberg ahead of Lewis Hamilton and far ahead of Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari. The Lotus cars were able to run, but this time it was the McLarens that experienced a troublesome session, apparently affected by engine-related issues.

Free Practice 3 Results of the 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix: