French GP 2018

JUNE 23, 2018

Practice 3 Report - Yeah, it's over

By Dan Knutson

"Yeah, it's over," Sebastian Vettel said of any dry track running as he drove his Ferrari gently back to the pits on his slick tires. It had started to rain just a few minutes into Free Practice 3, and that sent the drivers scurrying back to the garages.

The line-up for the weekend was: Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas; Ferrari – Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen; Red Bull TAG Heuer – Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen; Force India Mercedes – Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon; Williams Mercedes –Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin; McLaren Renault – Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne; Renault – Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz; Toro Rosso Honda – Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly; Haas Ferrari – Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen; Sauber Ferrari – Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton went quickest in both Friday sessions.

"There's a lot of different lines you can take and it's tricky to find reference points out on the track," he said. "Apart from the colorful lines, it's difficult to tell where you are. There's a couple of places for example on the back straight where you're trying to find out where the corner is - it's really hard to see."

The ambient temperature at the start of the 60-minute session was 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Centigrade) and the track temperature was 102 degrees Fahrenheit (39 degrees Centigrade). There were storm clouds brewing and a threat of rain.

Ericsson, in a new car after he crashed on Friday, was one of the first out on the track.

"A couple of drops on the visor," Ricciardo radioed.

"Turn 5, it is already raining," reported Vettel.

The drivers were desperate to get in some dry laps before it really started to rain hard.

Bottas clocked a 1:33.666 on the still mostly dry track. But it was already slippery in the Turn 4, 5 and 6 area, and various drivers were sliding off the track.

Then it started to rain properly, and all the drivers were back in the garages ten minutes into the session.

The running order, which was irrelevant given the way the session had developed, was: Bottas, Sainz, Leclerc, Alonso, Vettel, Vandoorne, Gasly, Ericsson, Perez, Ricciardo, Ocon, Hamilton and Raikkonen. Seven drivers had yet to set a lap time.

"Properly soggy out there now," Mercedes reported.

One forecast said the rain would stop within 20 minutes, so the question now was what sort of running the drivers could get in during the remainder of the session. Halfway through FP3 they were still all garaged. The teams have a limited number of rain tires, so they had to be conservative and save sets in case it rained in qualifying and the race.

In other news, Hartley was going to have to start at the back of the grid because his car required a number of new parts on the power unit.

With ten minutes to go, Alonso was the first to venture out on the wet track. His McLaren was fitted with Pirelli's extreme rain tires. He did one exploratory lap and pitted.

Stroll also went out, but the team told him not to take any risks. Still, he had to take to the escape road. Sirotkin and a few others, six in all, also did some laps.

And so FP3 petered out, but rain was predicted for qualifying. So this wet running was not over yet.