Sebastian Vettel threw Mercedes a curveball on Saturday morning when he popped in a 1:16.143 to go two-tenths quicker than Nico Rosberg and half a second quicker than Lewis Hamilton.
Key Points from FP3:
– Vettel’s best time is just two-tenths shy of Rosberg’s 2014 pole position time.
– Daniel Ricciardo finished in fourth with Carlos Sainz completing the top five, albeit over a second off the leading pace.
– Kimi Raikkonen finished sixth fastest but his session came to an abrupt end when he hit the tyre wall at Turn 1, damaging the left-rear of his Ferrari and bringing out a brief red flag.
– Max Verstappen was another casualty of Monaco’s barriers. The Dutch driver span and rear-ended the wall at the final corner, though he managed to recover his car to the pits.
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 01 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:16.143 | – | 27 |
| 02 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:16.361 | 0.218 | 31 |
| 03 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:16.705 | 0.562 | 31 |
| 04 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:17.120 | 0.977 | 26 |
| 05 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:17.256 | 1.113 | 39 |
| 06 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:17.401 | 1.258 | 11 |
| 07 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 1:17.471 | 1.328 | 28 |
| 08 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:17.767 | 1.624 | 28 |
| 09 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:17.788 | 1.645 | 23 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:17.806 | 1.663 | 28 |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:17.832 | 1.689 | 30 |
| 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:17.956 | 1.813 | 28 |
| 13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:18.102 | 1.959 | 32 |
| 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:18.197 | 2.054 | 26 |
| 15 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:18.212 | 2.069 | 29 |
| 16 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:18.242 | 2.099 | 32 |
| 17 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:18.767 | 2.624 | 38 |
| 18 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:19.269 | 3.126 | 37 |
| 19 | Will Stevens | Marussia | 1:21.093 | 4.950 | 31 |
| 20 | Roberto Merhi | Marussia | 1:22.225 | 6.082 | 30 |
