Hamilton well ahead in final practice

2016 Malaysian Grand Prix third practice

Posted on

| Written by

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.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’34.43416
233Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’34.8790.44514
36Nico RosbergMercedes1’35.0530.61916
47Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’35.1500.71615
55Sebastian VettelFerrari1’35.1700.73614
63Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’35.4611.02722
727Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’35.7761.34216
877Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’35.9021.46817
955Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Ferrari1’36.2221.78818
1019Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’36.2271.79320
1111Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’36.2591.82515
1222Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’36.3631.92911
1321Esteban GutierrezHaas-Ferrari1’36.5532.11914
1430Jolyon PalmerRenault1’36.6042.17020
158Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’36.6872.25315
1620Kevin MagnussenRenault1’36.7412.30719
1726Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Ferrari1’36.7522.31820
189Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’36.7652.33119
1912Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’37.1062.67218
2031Esteban OconManor-Mercedes1’37.9613.52717
2194Pascal WehrleinManor-Mercedes1’38.0893.65513
2214Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’41.1996.76515

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

+1.929 Jenson Button – 1’36.363

+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

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’35.7211’34.9441’34.434-0.5176
2Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’36.9731’36.0371’34.879-1.15869
3Nico RosbergMercedes1’35.2271’35.1771’35.053-0.12477
4Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’36.3151’35.8421’35.150-0.69262
5Sebastian VettelFerrari1’36.3311’35.6051’35.170-0.43569
6Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’36.7531’36.3371’35.461-0.87679
7Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’37.5131’36.3901’35.776-0.61479
8Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’37.8611’37.0161’35.902-1.11471
9Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Ferrari1’38.0551’36.8361’36.222-0.61473
10Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’38.3391’37.1101’36.227-0.88363
11Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’37.6011’36.2841’36.259-0.02575
12Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’36.5101’36.2961’41.199+4.90360
13Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’37.6131’36.7151’36.363-0.35253
14Esteban GutierrezHaas-Ferrari1’37.9211’37.0481’36.553-0.49562
15Jolyon PalmerRenault1’39.1481’36.9401’36.604-0.33679
16Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’37.8861’37.7891’36.687-1.10262
17Kevin MagnussenRenault1’37.6641’36.741-0.92340
18Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Ferrari1’37.8471’37.2971’36.752-0.54578
19Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’38.3131’37.4491’36.765-0.68467
20Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’38.1841’37.5471’37.106-0.44162
21Pascal WehrleinManor-Mercedes1’40.6271’37.8781’38.089+0.21173
22Esteban OconManor-Mercedes1’40.0361’37.9901’37.961-0.02981

Don’t forget to make your predictions

Enter your predictions for this weekend’s race before qualifying begins:

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

7 comments on “Hamilton well ahead in final practice”

  1. Go Lewis go!

  2. 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 :-)

    1. @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.

  3. 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.

    1. 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 ?

  4. 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!

    1. Pole: HAM 1:33.525

      P1: ROS
      P2: VES
      P3: HAM
      P4: VET
      P5: RIC

Comments are closed.