Hamilton sets fastest time in final practice

2011 Malaysian GP third practice

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Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Sepang, 2011

Lewis Hamilton broke Mark Webber’s hold on the fastest practice times in the final session ahead of qualifying in Malaysia.

The McLaren driver’s final effort put him three-tenths of a second ahead of Webber’s Red Bull.

Hamilton was also four-tenths quicker than team mate Jenson Button, who was third.

Nick Heidfeld put Renault fourth following their problems on Friday, ahead of his team mate and the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.

Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi and the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher completed the top ten.

Paul di Resta was one of few spinners in a largely incident-free, dry session at Sepang.

Vitantonio Liuzzi spent much of the session in the pits and only managed to get on-track in the final quarter of an hour.

More to follow

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGap
13Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’36.34011
22Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’36.6300.29016
34Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’36.7620.42214
49Nick HeidfeldRenault1’37.1150.77517
51Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’37.1750.83514
65Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’37.2840.94411
710Vitaly PetrovRenault1’37.2970.95716
86Felipe MassaFerrari1’37.7621.42212
916Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’38.0591.71918
107Michael SchumacherMercedes1’38.3001.96020
118Nico RosbergMercedes1’38.3071.96720
1217Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’38.4482.10817
1314Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’38.4642.12416
1412Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’38.5972.25715
1518Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’38.6652.32514
1611Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’38.6812.34116
1719Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’38.7162.37614
1815Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’38.8642.52413
1920Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’39.2602.92019
2021Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’39.6993.35915
2125Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’41.2154.87517
2224Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’41.4145.07418
2323Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’43.1476.8076
2422Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1’43.3837.04311

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Total laps
1Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’39.3161’37.0101’36.34050
2Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’37.6511’36.8761’36.63062
3Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’40.9271’36.8811’36.76260
4Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’41.6271’37.0901’37.17562
5Nick HeidfeldRenault1’40.5251’38.5701’37.11539
6Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’40.6011’38.5831’37.28461
7Vitaly PetrovRenault1’47.9321’39.2671’37.29737
8Felipe MassaFerrari1’40.4531’38.0891’37.76265
9Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’40.8721’39.3981’38.05974
10Michael SchumacherMercedes1’39.7911’38.0881’38.30075
11Nico RosbergMercedes1’40.6461’38.5651’38.30774
12Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’41.6421’39.6031’38.44875
13Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’40.7341’39.8091’38.46465
14Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’40.4431’38.9681’38.59771
15Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’40.1151’38.66545
16Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’40.5811’39.1871’38.68167
17Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’40.7701’38.8461’38.71669
18Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’39.6251’38.86444
19Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’44.8861’39.26023
20Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’41.6201’41.8901’39.69955
21Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’40.37723
22Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’40.74823
23Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’42.1541’40.8661’41.41460
24Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’42.5401’41.21537
25Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’45.2281’43.9911’43.14740
26Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1’46.2671’43.1971’43.38336
27Davide ValsecchiLotus-Cosworth1’44.05418

2011 Malaysian Grand Prix


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    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...

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    51 comments on “Hamilton sets fastest time in final practice”

    1. Like Anthony Davidson said Red Bull have a lot more up their sleeve. I still think Webber will get pole though.

      1. So you also decided to give him another chance at it in your predictions?

        1. Well I predicted Vettel for pole in Aus but I reckon Webber has the edge on him this weekend.

          1. That’s one point less in the predictions so far! (Not being nasty)

      2. No, it has to be Vettel on pole or my predctions are gonna fall through the roof if rain hits tomorrow. :)

        1. LOL. Mine too :)

      3. Not sure about Webber, I think Seb is definitely planning something. But it will pretty much be for the 2nd row between the McLarens, I guess.

    2. Petrov is frightenling close to Alonso again. It’s getting to be a regular thing isn’t it?

      1. Lets hope so :)

        1. I might have to become a Pet fan just to take it easier on my nerves!

      2. I feel so sorry for Alonso about that. it’s quite funny because he moved to Ferrari because Renault was to slow.

        1. That must make his little spats with Petrov all the more fun for him.

          1. Now that’s the right attitude to have! ;)

    3. So did MSC do his fastest without the DRS? And if so, because they (again?) had issues with it, or to try the race pace somehow? What do you think?

      1. His lap times with Rosberg are almost identical.
        if Roseberg was using it then it seems as though MSC got the leg up on him in practice.

      2. His fastest lap I don’t think he was using the DRS. At least he wasn’t using it on the last 2 straights.

        1. I think they might have been doing a bit of training to see how they do without it in the first laps of the race. Or were they keeping back their pace?
          Worst case, they might even have been encountering problems with it.

          1. I can see very little reason for Merc. to hide their pace on purpose, so if their car can go faster, it is most likely to be due to issues keeping them back.

      3. I think they were doing something different. Rosberg was only marginally quicker and Schu was even slower than yesterday.

    4. You get the feeling Red Bull has something left in the tank, but I’m sincerely hoping it’s not a lot. Would love to see an honest to goodness scrap between both Red Bulls & McLarens as long as they don’t take each other out.

      1. Hear hear!

    5. I had a dream last night that Hamilton and Vettel took each other out, hmmm….

      1. so did I, which was a bit weird. Also Webber retired and Button won.

      2. Well, those ‘dreams at night’ don’t come true…

        1. Hope not, want to see some racing not bumper cars

          1. My reverie is that Hamilton, Vettel and Webber go wheel to wheel for 90+ minutes. May the best man win.

        2. I had a dream that it rained in qualifying and some mistakes were made.

        3. If you’ve been on the forum you’ll have seen my wierd F1 dream involving Malaysian GP. :L

      3. I had a dream that a Predator was after me…

        should spice up racing.

        1. Would make a change from hares or deers being on the track

          1. Yeah. Bernie should think of hiring the Predator full time. You know.. just to ‘improve the show’ and all.

            1. Just you wait Todfod, the FIA will only allow the Predator to activate his Plasma Caster in FIA sanctioned “zones”.

              PEW PEW!

          2. Oh deer

    6. So last year Hamilton was fastest in FP1 and FP2, Webber slightly faster in FP3. This year Webber was fastest in FP1 and FP2, Hamilton slightly faster in FP3. Does that mean Hamilton will get pole in a wet qualifying and be passed by Button into the first corner?

      1. Now that would be a very nice way for things to go!

    7. Hamilton did a one lap run to set his time. Most other drivers stayed out on the soft tyre after they had done their fastest time.

      Red Bull will get pole (if it remains dry). It’s just a question of which one.

      1. Just a note to say that Schumacher set his fastest time without the use of DRS.

        1. Ok. But he’s not gonna be closing 2 seconds just by using it!

          1. Yes, he is normally around 10th anyway

            1. I reckon they’ll be competing with the Ferrari’s.

    8. I think Red Bull 1-3 and McLaren 2-4 in Qualifying. Gonna be less than 0.4s separating those four cars. The next best? A second away from P4!

      1. I read that as RBR 1-2-3 at first.. lol.
        I’ve predicted Heidfeld as 5th in the race. I think we’ll see his normal pace this weekend

    9. MSC’s best lap today was slower by 0.3 seconds than its best lap yesterday. Why didn’t he use the DRS?

      1. I guess that you can be fairly certain of what time you will make up by using DRS. What probably mattered more to Mercedes is what the car goes like in the race when you are not using DRS on fresh soft tyres.

    10. Red Bull will be well ahead, with maybe McLaren behind, and then Renault, Ferrari etc follwing them.

      If it rains, hit the reset button.

      1. VRX why do you ware red bull tinted glasses. I think red bull will prob be slighty ahead but it will be very close with mclaren, doubt they will be “well ahead”

      2. Yep. I have a feeling Red Bull are confident enough that they were still running heavy and gathering tire data for the race whereas everyone else were doing quali sims.

    11. does anyone think this is reflective of Mercedes’ real pace? if so, i’m worried. I’m sure that sort of performance is not what Schuey had in mind. I feel kinda disappointed for rosberg too, he deserves better i reckon.

    12. IS there any meaning in amount of laps run? Just flicking through the above time sheet I wonder about Alonso and Hamilton being the only ones aside from the last guy with 11 laps run in FP3. Also, in total Hamilton ran only 50 laps whereas all others (top ten ignoring Renault coz technical troubles) at least 60+.

    13. Off topic but..

      Why do the rest of Australia get F1 quali live, but Tasmania has an hour late delay?? They have some M7 Multisporrt thing advertised for 6pm in Tasmanias guide. But for the rest of Australia M7 Multisport is on at 5pm?

    14. Geordie Porker
      9th April 2011, 8:47

      Keith,
      Any chance you could put up a 107% time in the tables. I know it’s only free practice, but in FP3 most teams are doing qualifying runs and it would save me (and probably others) trying to work out how close the likes of HRT are to failing to make the cut.

      Of course, if nobody else wants this (or indeed if you do!) just reply to this so Keith knows whether it’s worth his effort.

      Thanks

    Comments are closed.