@ValtteriBottas ends FP3 quickest as #Albon suffers huge shunt. #F1 #ChineseGP #Race1000
Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W10 EQ Power+, Free Practice Three, Formula 1 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix 2019, Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China. Image credit to SkySportsF1.com.
Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas finished FP3 quickest at the Chinese GP ahead of the two Ferrari’s as Albon suffers a huge crash bringing out the red flag ending the session five minutes early.
Bottas posted a 1:32.830 on the C4 red-marked soft compounds and was 0.392 ahead of Ferrari pairing Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc who was a further 0.418 adrift of the Finn.
The other Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, who admitted he was “struggling” after yesterday’s running, ended FP3 in fourth place and a further 0.859 off team-mate Bottas’ benchmark due to making errors on his qualifying simulation runs on the softer tyre.
Vettel also was on course to topping the time-sheets but like Hamilton made mistakes on his flyer through the final two sectors as his SF90 racer continued to close the gap to the Silver Arrows with it’s superior straight-line speed.
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg continued to impress in Shanghai, rounding out the top five in his R.S.19 machine and was a further 1.144 off of championship leader Bottas.
Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen was sixth quickest and ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who was seventh and Carlos Sainz who took eighth in the McLaren MCL34.
The aforementioned Albon finished the session ninth for Toro Rosso but the Thai driver suffered a heavy crash with five minutes remaining to bring out the red flag.
Albon lost control of his Honda-powered STR14 on the final corner after wobbling on the astro-turf and shunting into the barriers.
Albon walked away from the incident unscathed but now is in major doubt for qualifying as the Faenza-based squad rebuild his STR14.
His team-mate Daniil Kvyat completed the top ten and in-front of Lando Norris who was 11th and Racing Point’s Sergio Perez who took 12th.
The second Renault and Racing Point of Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll placed 13th and 14th respectively with Pierre Gasly’s Red Bull a low 15th.
The other Alfa Romeo Racing C38 of Antonio Giovinazzi finished in 16th ahead of Haas duo Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen who were both 17th and 18th respectively.
The two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica brought up the rear and were more than 3.2 seconds off the pace.
Formula 1 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix Free Practice Three Classification
| POS | DRIVER | TIME | GAP | LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:32.830 | 11 | ||
| 2 | 1:33.222 | +0.392s | 12 | |
| 3 | 1:33.248 | +0.418s | 10 | |
| 4 | 1:33.689 | +0.859s | 10 | |
| 5 | 1:33.974 | +1.144s | 11 | |
| 6 | 1:34.246 | +1.416s | 14 | |
| 7 | 1:34.447 | +1.617s | 5 | |
| 8 | 1:34.510 | +1.680s | 9 | |
| 9 | 1:34.600 | +1.770s | 11 | |
| 10 | 1:34.783 | +1.953s | 10 | |
| 11 | 1:34.938 | +2.108s | 11 | |
| 12 | 1:35.078 | +2.248s | 9 | |
| 13 | 1:35.142 | +2.312s | 11 | |
| 14 | 1:35.223 | +2.393s | 10 | |
| 15 | 1:35.326 | +2.496s | 8 | |
| 16 | 1:35.726 | +2.896s | 12 | |
| 17 | 1:35.771 | +2.941s | 14 | |
| 18 | 1:35.998 | +3.168s | 15 | |
| 19 | 1:36.124 | +3.294s | 10 | |
| 20 | 1:36.176 | +3.346s | 11 |
