Hamilton quickest by less than a tenth in final practice

2014 Hungarian Grand Prix third practice

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Lewis Hamilton topped the time sheets for the third consecutive session at the Hungaroring ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session.

But Hamilton’s championship rival Nico Rosberg was only 0.047 seconds adrift of his Mercedes team mate, with Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull third fastest almost four tenths slower than the Silver Arrows.

When the session began, Hamilton immediately set about on a long fuel run and was heard complaining of a lack of braking response over team radio. Mercedes confirmed that both Hamilton and Rosberg were running only Carbone Industrie brakes for this session.

The tarmac run-off around the Hungaroring saw plenty of early action, with Kamui Kobayashi and Romain Grosjean running wide at Turn Four and Nico Rosberg and Marcus Ericsson both missing Turn 12 entirely.

With all cars focussing on runs on the Medium compound tyre, Valtteri Bottas was the first driver to eclipse the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg at the top of the time sheets, before Daniel Ricciardo became the first driver to break the 1’26 barrier in the session soon after.

Fernando Alonso ventured out for his first timed run more than halfway into the session and immediately posted the quickest time on Medium tyres, before Hamilton lowered the benchmark by almost three tenths of a second.

With just under fifteen minutes to go, the track fell silent as the teams prepared for their usual qualifying simulation runs. Alonso was the first driver to set a time on the Soft tyres, improving his best by 1.1 seconds compared to the Medium compound.

Nico Rosberg then went fastest on a 1’24.501, despite running wide at Turn 14, but was soon bested by Hamilton who posted the quickest time of the weekend with a 1’24.048.

Rosberg improved his personal best at the end of the session and was only 0.047 slower than his team mate. Behind the Mercedes, the two Red Bulls of Vettel and Ricciardo were the quickest out of the rest of the field.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’24.04821
26Nico RosbergMercedes1’24.0950.04724
31Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’24.4550.40716
43Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’24.6780.63015
577Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’24.6850.63721
614Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’24.7690.72111
77Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’24.8180.77019
820Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’24.8670.81921
925Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’25.1621.11417
1026Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’25.1701.12219
1119Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’25.2311.18318
1222Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’25.4681.42014
1313Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’25.8291.78122
148Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’25.8591.81119
1599Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’25.9341.88621
1621Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’26.0231.97523
1727Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’26.0351.98719
1811Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’26.1422.09417
1910Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1’27.5603.51223
204Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1’28.0834.03517
219Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1’28.6054.55722
2217Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1’28.8214.77314

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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13 comments on “Hamilton quickest by less than a tenth in final practice”

  1. Hami posted the fastest time but I do not think that was his fastest possible time.I think he merely driving home the point that this is his track.

  2. Naijafanatic
    26th July 2014, 11:38

    Lewis looks very racy, impressed with how close ROS is over one lap, as a HAM fan, it’s gonna be a nail-biting quali sesh

  3. Wat on earth has happened to Force India?!? They are 2 seconds behind the Mercedes and are only ahead of Caterham and Marussia! It’s FP3 but if this is more or less of how their quali maybe then I am worried they may not end up in points altogether this race.

    1. I’d say this is the antithesis of a Force India track.

    2. Either they are hiding their real pace or they are loosing chunks of time in the last few sectors..

    3. i’d say their setup is all FRIC’d up…

  4. MERCEDES quickest saving fuel and tyres against family vans… same story this year.

  5. Rosberg’s pace worries me, he posted that time on his 3rd flying lap. Hopefully Lewis has kept something special back for qually – just not a brake issue.

    1. Hamilton left at least a tenth on the table on turn 12. Was watching on board, even Bruno mentioned it.

  6. lewis was taking it easy.remember on mediums he went quickest on 12 lap old tyres.he could have gone quicker on those softs if he had of stayed out,but no need.

  7. And then his car set on fire when it mattered. Come on Mercedes, get it sorted. Rosberg is the luckiest WDC in history.

  8. And he catches fire…….

  9. I think Lewis is royally been screwed up

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