All over as Ferrari set the fastest time for the day! Sebastian Vettel leads the timesheets, with Kimi leading the previous one. Good showing from the team both in wet and dry circumstances, with Valtteri Bottas of Williams right behind in P2.
McLaren set no times today although both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were out on track, with both sussing out the track instead. It’ll likely be a wet qualifying today – or a mix of both, which Kimi excels at.
Pascal Wehrlein drifting off a bit there... right off the track! Looks like he aquaplaned. Track is drying up a bit, but not the greatest outing for them.
Correction - it’s not Kevin Magnussen but Jolyon Palmer (of the same team, Renault) who has a puncture. Valtteri Bottas has come back in with 10 minutes of session to go, and has set second fastest time. Manor having a bit of trouble as they run the car hard and Pascal Wehrlein sparks; most drivers have shifted to intermediates with the track drying out slightly.
Force India’s Checo Perez is holding onto his third-fastest position for now; he’s set a good time, but we’re not sure if he’ll take another lap to improve on his time.
New fastest time and it's by Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari! He’s got a significant gap over the others at 1:57.351 but Force India’s Sergio Perez is right behind him.
Sauber are having a bad day all around; neither driver looks to be getting out on track; Marcus Ericsson's car has a hydraulic failure, say the team, while Felipe Nasr was ready to go before his car began ‘making noise’. The team have no idea what it is at the moment.
A bad couple of days for Kevin Magnussen. After a puncture yesterday, he’s got another puncture today and heads back into the dock.
First timed laps for the session come from Kimi Raikkonen at 2:00.812 and Williams’ Felipe Massa 3/10ths behind him with 2:02.438. Massa’s teammate Bottas goes faster at 2:01.256! Are we heading to the ...Finnish line?
Kimi Raikkonen out on track! He’s good with the rainy conditions and has been great this weekend. He’ll set the first timed lap for the day!
Now it's Mercedes and Ferrari both out on track – Nico Rosberg out of the barn first, followed by Lewis Hamilton.
Both McLarens – Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso get out on track and Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat is out too! Kvyat on the wets and pushing hard today. We saw the middle sector temporarily red-flagged with Romain Grosjean of Haas spinning a little.
And they’re off! Valtteri Bottas of Williams the first out on track and slipping slightly, Bottas keeping wide from the apex and dealing with rivulets forming on track. Teammate Felipe Massa is also out there and driving. Bottas heads in right away, but Massa’s still on track and now Jolyon Palmer of Renault on track now.
Looks like we’ll have a crowded final session on our hands! Sauber, Haas, Toro Rosso and Renault all in their cars and having engines fired up now.
Felipe Massa in the car and getting ready to get onto track. So is Kimi Raikkonen. With 50 minutes to go, drivers are finally getting ready to put some miles in.
We’re 8 minutes into FP3 and as expected, no drivers out on track yet.
It’s not a pummelling heavy rain, but a constant spitting rain. Rain was expected anyway, and there’s some standing water on track. It may be 15 minutes before drivers get out on track, although the session has commenced.
Sebastian Vettel looks happy – he has reason to be, given Ferrari’s performance yesterday. Kimi Raikkonen topped FP2 with Vettel in second after FP1 went the way of Nico Rosberg and Mercedes.
FP3 is about to begin.
We saw squalls earlier, now the rain is constant. The track's relatively level and drivers have 5 tyre choices today – Softs, Supersofts, Mediums, Intermediates and wets given the downpour.
UPDATE: It’s now raining in Shanghai. Very very wet practice and qualifying look to be on the cards for now!
We’re at the final practice session for the Pirelli Chinese Grand Prix. It’s been an eventful first two practices, with a number of car issues across teams. Most significantly, Williams’ Felipe Massa saw a double rear tyre failure early on and could not continue. That prompted investigations, with Williams technical director Pat Symonds later clarifying it was a suspension failure that had caused the issues.
Renault’s Kevin Magnussen also had a rear puncture – which was also caused by suspension issues. Haas F1 driver Romain Grosjean spoke later about the ‘ridiculous tyre pressures’ required at the race; this could have perhaps been a contributor.
Grosjean’s teammate Esteban Gutierrez was another casualty in the session. The young Mexican driver had the worst showing of the lot, with a brake fire that prompted red flags at the circuit; he has been a non-finisher at each of the two Grands Prix so far, although Grosjean’s relatively high finishes have made up for this.
Mercedes led early on in the first practice session, with Australia and Bahrain winner Nico Rosberg setting the fastest pace. Teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was on pole for both those races, trailed him in second. Hamilton has a 5-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, however, so even if he does qualify in pole in today’s session, he will not start from the front row.
The second session went to Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. The 2007 world champion has looked good in the 2016 season, and although he had a DNF at the Australian Grand Prix, made up for it with some pacey driving and astute overtaking in Bahrain, a track the Finn is known to favour.
Raikkonen had his first podium of the year in Bahrain, and looks in good form despite being one of the oldest on the track.
That session went entirely in Ferrari’s favour, with Raikkonen teammate and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel finishing with the second fastest time. The two outpaced the Mercedes by nearly 0.23 and 0.5 seconds respectively, a respectable gap given the near-equal power of both engines this year.
Both Hamilton and Rosberg have spoken of their worry at Ferrari’s power this year, and the Maranello-based outfit have in fact been pacey; their issues this year, uncharacteristically for the team, have come from reliability. While a Ferrari driver has finished on the podium for both races to date, only one driver from the team has finished each of those races, with Vettel forced to retire on the opening lap after his engine spewed metal in Bahrain.
After having sorted out strategy issues, it is reliability – which has seriously cost an otherwise-talented McLaren outfit any decent finish – that boss Maurizio Arrivabene will want to look into.
Lewis Hamiilton is reigning champion at the track after beginning from pole, and set a Grand Chelem here last year – pole position, fastest lap and the race win, with Rosberg and Vettel rounding off the podium.
Ferrari look to be on the offensive and moving up today, so barring any extenuating circumstances could be serious competition for the German outfit, who are double reigning champions and widely acknowledged as one of the most dominant teams in F1 since Ferrari’s reign in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Red Bull have looked strong as well – Daniel Ricciardo’s high finishes in Australia and Bahrain have taken the team up the standings despite their issues with the Renault engine.
2015 standout star Max Verstappen finished FP2 in a very high fifth. The teenager, the youngest driver on the track, has shown exquisite overtaking skill that could stand him in good stead going into the future; he has already proven himself as a strong competitor for much older, more experienced drivers on the track and shown an overtaking skill beyond his years.
Free Practice 3 will commence at 9:30 am IST.
