Russian GP: Williams Martini 2nd & 5th in FP3

Team Summary:
On what was a much nicer day at the Sochi circuit the Williams Martini would quickly send their drivers out for the third practice session for the 2015 Russian Grand Prix. Kvyat was the first driver out, followed by Ericsson, Hamilton, and Rosberg. There was a mix of the soft and super soft tyre amongst the drivers coming out. A 1m:46.856 from Kvyat but Ricciardo would move ahead with a 1m:45.096. Valtteri would go quickest followed by Grosjean. Ricciardo was now second from Hulkenberg in what should be a very changeable session. Maldonado was now third joining Ricciardo at the front on the option super soft tyre. Valtteri continued to improve opening out a gap to second of 2.5 seconds. Seconds was now Hamilton with Grosjean third. But Maldonado would use the option tyre to go second.
Again there would be a change as Hamilton and Grosjean went second and third.

Felipe was now second right behind his team-mate by 0.355 seconds. Grosjean was now third followed by Hamilton and Rosberg. It was looking like an all Mercedes time order. The first non Mercedes car was Sainz in seventh. The quickest of the super soft runners was Maldonado in sixth. With forty minutes remaining Valtteri was back in the pits as Felipe continued to run. Felipe would it pit while Raikkonen went third on the option tyre. Vettel was fourth on the soft tyre with Ferrari splitting their drivers. Both drivers would return to the track both on the option super soft tyre. Valtteri
would improve his quickest time while Nasr went third running on the soft tyre. Now it was the turn of a Mercedes factory car to set the quickest time with Rosberg setting a 1m:38.941 on the option tyre.

Valtteri and Felipe were now second and third with Button fourth. Nasr was fifth followed by Raikkonen, Grosjean, and Sainz. Perez would move into third seeing Felipe now fourth and Hulkenberg fifth. The top six times were all on the option tyre but Maldonado would move into sixth on the soft tyre. Hamilton was now in third followed by Perez and Felipe. There was twenty four minutes remaining the session would be red flagged as Sainz crashed a Turn thirteen. His car had gone straight into the tec-pro barrier with a debris trail leading down to the point that he hit the barrier. Sainz had made contact with the barrier on the run down to the corner and as a result his car would go straight ahead with the front left wheel and suspension broekn. It was announced that the session would not be restarted. Sainz would be taken away in an ambulance thankfully giving a thumbs up to everyone.

Felipe Massa:
Felipe would follow Valtteri out running also on the soft tyre. His first lap was a 1m:45.504. Felipe had locked up his front right and he would pit currently in thirteenth. But he would continue to drop down the order as others went quicker. Felipe was also to have a problem with his energy deployment and was told to pit. He was sixteenth as he came back out still on the soft tyre. He was on a quicker
lap and would move up to second with a 1m:40.972. After this lap Felipe would pit again briefly having complained to his engineer that he was having problems on the exit of Turn two. Felipe had gone quickest in sector one but would abort the lap and pit. Felipe would also come out on the option tyre. Felipe would not improve his time but would still go quickest in the final sector. Felipe was on an improved lap setting a 1m:39.875.

Valtteri Bottas:
Valtteri would come out first running on the soft tyre. Valtteri was told that he would be doing eight times laps. Valtteri would complete his first timed lap with a 1m:42.829 to be quickest. Valtteri would continue to lap and would improve with a 1m:41.786. Valtteri would continue to improve with quickest times in the first two sectors and would finish his lap with a 1m:40.884. He would again improve with a 1m:40.617 and after ten laps he would pit and was put on the trolleys and pushed
back into his pit. Valtteri would return after a few minutes this time on the option tyre. Valtteri would go quickest in sector two and three and would set a 1m:40.275. A further improvement in sector one and two and he would set a 1m:39.287. Valtteri continued on a longer run on the option tyre having completed six laps prior to pitting.

Pos  Driver         	Team		        Time     Laps
1  Nico Rosberg		Mercedes		1m38.561 15
2  Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	0.726s	17
3  Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		0.802s	13
4  Sergio Perez		Force India-Mercedes	1.055s	14
5  Felipe Massa		Williams-Mercedes	1.314s	14
6  Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1.356s	14
7  Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda		2.020s	12
8  Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Mercedes		2.206s	13
9  Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda		2.639s	11
10 Felipe Nasr		Sauber-Ferrari		2.668s	14
11 Daniil Kvyat		Red Bull-Renault	2.797s	15
12 Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari			3.736s	11
13 Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Mercedes		3.810s	14
14 Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari		3.889s	14
15 Carlos Sainz		Toro Rosso-Renault	4.122s	19
16 Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari			4.125s	11
17 Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	4.528s	16
18 Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	4.786s	14
19 Roberto Merhi	Marussia-Ferrari	8.206s	19
20 Will Stevens		Marussia-Ferrari	8.688s	18