21/02/2015
NEWS STORY
The dark clouds which threatened all morning finally took a dump around forty minutes before the lunch break.
In fact, there had been a few spots at the start of the session, enough to catch out Sebastian Vettel who spun off into the gravel at T4, thus bringing out a red flag just moments in.
Returning to the pits, the German admitted that it was his mistake, that he been caught out when his cold tyres hit a wet patch.
Having encountered a gearbox issue late in yesterday's session, Sauber revealed that it was still working on the problem and hoped to have Marcus Ericsson on track "soon". In fact the Swede didn't appear until just before lunch.
The second red flag came around eighty minutes in when Jenson Button ground to a halt at T8, the Briton reporting a total loss of power. The problem resolved, he remerged around eighty minutes later.
Showing no after effects of that fever, Hamilton posted the first time of the day, the world champion and his car continuing to look good, even if the unusually cold conditions have prevented them fully stretching their legs.
Anticipating the change in the weather, Williams has altered its schedule, running Felipe Massa this morning and Valtteri Bottas this afternoon. Whilst the Brazilian has been one of the busiest drivers this morning, the Grove outfit has also found time for lots of pit stop practice.
Going into the break, Max Verstappen leads, the Dutch youngster, who went quickest ninety minutes earlier (on softs) subsequently switched to super-softs - the only man to do so - and improved to 1:24.739.
Whilst it went quiet once the rain began to fall, Maldonado eventually ventured out on inters, followed by Vettel, who set a strong pace (also on inters) up until the chequered flag was waved.
Morning Times - All Times Unofficial
| Name | Team | Laps | Time | Gap |
| Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 60 | 1:24.739 | 122.886 mph |
| Hamilton | Mercedes | 41 | 1:26.142 | 1.403 |
| Vettel | Ferrari | 52 | 1:26.407 | 1.668 |
| Kvyat | Red Bull | 34 | 1:26.589 | 1.850 |
| Massa | Williams | 51 | 1:26.912 | 2.173 |
| Wehrlein | Force India | 36 | 1:27.699 | 2.960 |
| Maldonado | Lotus | 42 | 1:27.966 | 3.227 |
| Button | McLaren | 12 | 1:29.151 | 4.412 |
| Ericsson | Sauber | 4 | 1:42.179 | 17.440 |
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