Bottas quickest in wet/dry final practice in Belgium
Williams’ Valtteri Bottas went quickest in the final practice for the Belgian GP as tricky weather conditions led to teams leaving most of their running until late in the session.
The Finn set a lap of 1:49.465 in the final dry minutes of a session that had started in damp conditions not wet enough for intermediate tyres but not quite dry enough for slick tyres.
It meant that the bulk of the session saw little running with only backmarkers testing the early conditions. Marussia’s Jules Bianchi topped the timesheet for half the session, ahead of team-mate Max Chilton and Caterham’s Andre Lotterer.
Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez was the first to move to slick tyres and when the Mexican went four seconds faster than on his run, it was the cue for action up and down the pit lane.
Bottas’s lap came in a frantic final few minutes in which a number of drivers attempted a soft-tyre run. The Williams driver finished 0.268s ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, while championship leader Nico Rosberg was third, with a lap 0.274s down on Bottas’.
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth for Ferrari ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and the other Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.
2014 Belgian Grand Prix – Free Practice 3 Times
1 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:49.465 12
2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:49.733 0.268 9
3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:49.739 0.274 13
4 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:49.817 0.352 9
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:49.817 0.352 13
6 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:49.890 0.425 9
7 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:49.893 0.428 11
8 Jenson Button McLaren 1:50.203 0.738 11
9 Felipe Massa Williams 1:50.423 0.958 11
10 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:50.535 1.070 10
11 Sergio Perez Force India 1:50.592 1.127 12
12 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:50.748 1.283 11
13 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:50.814 1.349 10
14 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:50.866 1.401 11
15 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1:50.962 1.497 12
16 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:51.509 2.044 9
17 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:51.610 2.145 10
18 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:51.898 2.433 15
19 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:52.457 2.992 14
20 Max Chilton Marussia 1:52.984 3.519 14
21 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:54.294 4.829 11
22 Andre Lotterer Caterham 1:55.008 5.543 13