Nico Rosberg ended the final practice session for the German Grand Prix with a comfortable margin of six-tenths of a second over his team mate and closest rival.
Rosberg set a best time of 1’17.779 using super-soft tyres at the end of the session while Lewis Hamilton, who reported a vibration from the rubber on his final run, could only manage a 1’18.380.
That was just four-thousandths of a second faster than Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari. But once again there were problems at the other side of that garage.
Ferrari diagnosed a fuel system problem on Kimi Raikkonen’s car halfway through the session and quickly summoned him back into the pits. He was out moments later to do a quick run on the super-softs, then returned to the pits for the rest of the session.
A clutch of Mercedes-powered cars followed Alonso on the times sheets. The Williams pair were next, Valtteri Bottas trailling his team mate after a scruffy lap.
Kevin Magnussen was next for McLaren but team mate Jenson Button languished in 13th place, complaining about poor balance and ineffective brakes as the session came to an end.
Combined practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’19.131 | 1’18.365 | 1’17.779 | -0.586 | 68 |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’19.196 | 1’18.341 | 1’18.380 | +0.039 | 63 |
3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’19.423 | 1’19.329 | 1’18.384 | -0.945 | 53 |
4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 1’19.697 | 1’18.443 | 1’18.769 | +0.326 | 62 |
5 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’20.542 | 1’19.024 | 1’18.575 | -0.449 | 55 |
6 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’19.385 | 1’18.611 | -0.774 | 34 | |
7 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’20.105 | 1’18.960 | 1’18.756 | -0.204 | 72 |
8 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’20.210 | 1’18.887 | 1’18.842 | -0.045 | 59 |
9 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’20.097 | 1’19.248 | 1’18.890 | -0.358 | 63 |
10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’20.592 | 1’19.593 | 1’19.127 | -0.466 | 54 |
11 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’20.337 | 1’19.452 | 1’19.131 | -0.321 | 55 |
12 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’19.833 | 1’19.221 | 1’19.489 | +0.268 | 64 |
13 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’20.505 | 1’19.417 | 1’20.844 | +1.427 | 59 |
14 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’20.586 | 1’19.760 | 1’19.470 | -0.29 | 55 |
15 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’20.598 | 1’19.581 | 1’19.505 | -0.076 | 52 |
16 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’20.504 | 1’19.601 | -0.903 | 40 | |
17 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1’21.603 | 1’20.358 | 1’20.078 | -0.28 | 55 |
18 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 1’21.854 | 1’20.158 | 1’20.466 | +0.308 | 65 |
19 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Ferrari | 1’22.982 | 1’21.328 | 1’20.199 | -1.129 | 55 |
20 | Susie Wolff | Williams-Mercedes | 1’20.769 | 22 | |||
21 | Giedo van der Garde | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’20.782 | 23 | |||
22 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham-Renault | 1’22.572 | 1’23.728 | 1’21.018 | -1.554 | 43 |
23 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham-Renault | 1’23.256 | 1’21.870 | 1’23.077 | +1.207 | 56 |
24 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Ferrari | 1’23.299 | 1’21.898 | 1’23.449 | +1.551 | 50 |
Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei