Lewis Hamilton comfortably led the times in the final practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver Used a new set of soft tyres to set a best lap of 1’34.434 with over ten minutes still to run in the session. That easily beat the previous benchmark by his team mate, but Nico Rosberg posted an improved time on his fifth lap on the same set of soft tyres, indicating he had some performance in hand.
Max Verstappen split the Mercedes drivers before the end of the session, getting within half a second of Hamilton’s time. He was separated from his team mate by the two Ferrari drivers.
Sebastian Vettel’s best effort on soft tyres left him two-tenths of a second shy of Kimi Raikkonen.
Force India and Williams appeared closely-matched again. Nico Hulkenberg was the quickest of the quartet but had the two FW38s between him and team mate Sergio Perez.
Carlos Sainz Jnr also got his Toro Rosso into the top ten, half a second quicker than Daniil Kvyat.
Fernando Alonso, whose qualifying grid penalty has been increased to 45 places after further component changes on his car, did not do a qualifying simulation run and ended the session slowest.
Ricciardo: "Just out of turn eight I was just on the exit kerb a little bit and I had a cut in power. In case I forget it, look into that."
— F1 Fanatic Live (@f1fanaticlive) October 1, 2016
More complaints from Grosjean: "There's something wrong with the car." #F1 #MalaysianGP
— F1 Fanatic Live (@f1fanaticlive) October 1, 2016
"Do you think we need to take front wing our or do you want to continue the run?"
Button: "Try one more lap." #F1 #MalaysianGP— F1 Fanatic Live (@f1fanaticlive) October 1, 2016
Palmer, well up in 12th at the moment, nonetheless reports a "very unstable" rear end on his Renault. #F1 #MalaysianGP
— F1 Fanatic Live (@f1fanaticlive) October 1, 2016
Third practice visual gaps
Lewis Hamilton – 1’34.434
+0.445 Max Verstappen – 1’34.879
+0.619 Nico Rosberg – 1’35.053
+0.716 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’35.150
+0.736 Sebastian Vettel – 1’35.170
+1.027 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’35.461
+1.342 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’35.776
+1.468 Valtteri Bottas – 1’35.902
+1.788 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’36.222
+1.793 Felipe Massa – 1’36.227
+1.825 Sergio Perez – 1’36.259
+2.119 Esteban Gutierrez – 1’36.553
+2.170 Jolyon Palmer – 1’36.604
+2.253 Romain Grosjean – 1’36.687
+2.307 Kevin Magnussen – 1’36.741
+2.318 Daniil Kvyat – 1’36.752
+2.331 Marcus Ericsson – 1’36.765
+2.672 Felipe Nasr – 1’37.106
+3.527 Esteban Ocon – 1’37.961
+3.655 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’38.089
+6.765 Fernando Alonso – 1’41.199
Combined practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’35.721 | 1’34.944 | 1’34.434 | -0.51 | 76 |
2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’36.973 | 1’36.037 | 1’34.879 | -1.158 | 69 |
3 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’35.227 | 1’35.177 | 1’35.053 | -0.124 | 77 |
4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’36.315 | 1’35.842 | 1’35.150 | -0.692 | 62 |
5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’36.331 | 1’35.605 | 1’35.170 | -0.435 | 69 |
6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’36.753 | 1’36.337 | 1’35.461 | -0.876 | 79 |
7 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’37.513 | 1’36.390 | 1’35.776 | -0.614 | 79 |
8 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’37.861 | 1’37.016 | 1’35.902 | -1.114 | 71 |
9 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’38.055 | 1’36.836 | 1’36.222 | -0.614 | 73 |
10 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’38.339 | 1’37.110 | 1’36.227 | -0.883 | 63 |
11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’37.601 | 1’36.284 | 1’36.259 | -0.025 | 75 |
12 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’36.510 | 1’36.296 | 1’41.199 | +4.903 | 60 |
13 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | 1’37.613 | 1’36.715 | 1’36.363 | -0.352 | 53 |
14 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas-Ferrari | 1’37.921 | 1’37.048 | 1’36.553 | -0.495 | 62 |
15 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’39.148 | 1’36.940 | 1’36.604 | -0.336 | 79 |
16 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’37.886 | 1’37.789 | 1’36.687 | -1.102 | 62 |
17 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1’37.664 | 1’36.741 | -0.923 | 40 | |
18 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’37.847 | 1’37.297 | 1’36.752 | -0.545 | 78 |
19 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’38.313 | 1’37.449 | 1’36.765 | -0.684 | 67 |
20 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’38.184 | 1’37.547 | 1’37.106 | -0.441 | 62 |
21 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor-Mercedes | 1’40.627 | 1’37.878 | 1’38.089 | +0.211 | 73 |
22 | Esteban Ocon | Manor-Mercedes | 1’40.036 | 1’37.990 | 1’37.961 | -0.029 | 81 |
Don’t forget to make your predictions
Enter your predictions for this weekend’s race before qualifying begins:
2016 Malaysian Grand Prix
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- Dramatic Malaysian GP gets strong rating
- 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix team radio transcript
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BOSS
1st October 2016, 8:12
Go Lewis go!
BasCB (@bascb)
1st October 2016, 8:20
Yeah, I think we can expect just a tenth or 2 between the Mercedes drivers on the front row (I still expect Hamilton to nail this one) with the second and 3rd row filled with Ferrari and REd Bulls, where it will depend on who gets a clean lap in right at the end to decide their order, I think it might be nicely mixed between them, setting things up nicely for a car to grab the lead from 3rd if Hamilton has a bad start :-)
bosyber (@bosyber)
1st October 2016, 8:47
@bascb To me it looks like Red Bull is faster than Ferrari this weekend, and RIC now knows for sure that he can get more out of it – so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him 3rd, VES 4th, then the Ferrari’s.
AMG44 (@amg44)
1st October 2016, 9:16
Unlike most of the grid, Rosberg improved by just 1 tenth from FP1 to FP2 to FP3 which is very unusual. Either he is massively struggling or on to something really clever here.
Ben
1st October 2016, 9:43
What’s clever about it ? I don’t understand what he’d gain by not pushing flat out at every opportunity. Perez and Ocon both improved less than a tenth and a few drivers didn’t improve by much more than a few tenths. I expect it to be closer between the Mercedes in qualifying but don’t understand how it’s being clever ?
Ibrahim (@ibrahim)
1st October 2016, 10:23
Argh,
I was just getting ready to put in my predicitions, the timer said I had like ten minutes left, I logged in, went to predictions and it’s already closed!
Ibrahim (@ibrahim)
1st October 2016, 10:25
Pole: HAM 1:33.525
P1: ROS
P2: VES
P3: HAM
P4: VET
P5: RIC