Eifel Grand Prix – Free practice 3: Charles third and Seb fifth

At the end of the only free practice session for the first Eifel Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel were third and fifth fastest respectively on the time sheet. It was a rather unusual session, given that after both of yesterday’s sessions were cancelled, today when the lights went green at 12, the teams each ran very different programmes.

Fifty laps.  The two Scuderia Ferrari drivers completed 25 laps each, working on set-up, a more complicated task than usual given that Formula 1 has not raced at the Nurburgring since 2013 and that this was the first appearance here of the hybrid-powered cars. In the second half of the session, the focus switched to work in race trim. Both men ran a qualifying simulation in the final moments of the hour, to ensure that the track was fully rubbered-in. Charles’ best lap was a 1’26”81, third fastest, while Sebastian stopped the clocks in 1’27”038 for fifth.

Programme.  Qualifying to determine positions on the starting grid gets underway at 15 CET, while the Eifel Grand Prix starts tomorrow at 14.10.