Webber edges Hamilton in final practice

2012 Hungarian Grand Prix third practice

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Mark Webber headed the times in the final practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver set the quickest time of the weekend so far, covering a lap of the Hungaroring in 1’21.550.

Kimi Raikkonen set the pace to begin with on medium tyres with a 1’22.718. That was beaten by Lewis Hamilton, the McLaren driver taking a couple of laps to string together a series of fastest sectors.

Once he did the McLaren was flying, Hamilton eventually lowering his best to a 1’21.706.

Meanwhile Red Bull were making an early start on assessing the soft tyres. Sebastian Vettel’s first lap on them was just 0.035s faster than Hamilton’s on mediums.

Vettel improved his middle sector time on his second effort but wasn’t able to lower his lap time. Team mate Mark Webber was, however, setting a 1’21.550 to go fastest.

That stood as the fastest time of the session as Hamilton was unable to beat it after he switched to soft tyres. A 1’21.643 left him less than a tenth of a second off.

Team mate Jenson Button couldn’t get much out of the soft tyres either – he ended the session tenth, 0.683s off the pace.

Bruno Senna repeated his strong performance from yesterday and was fourth with a lap of 1’21.876.

The Ferrari drivers stayed in the pits for the first 20 minutes of the session. Once they emerged, Fernando Alonso went fifth quickest with a lap of 1’21.884.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
12Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’21.55027
24Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’21.6430.09317
31Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’21.6710.12129
419Bruno SennaWilliams-Renault1’21.8760.32622
55Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’21.8840.33413
69Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’21.9530.40320
710Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’22.1100.56024
86Felipe MassaFerrari1’22.1360.58615
911Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’22.1910.64120
103Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’22.2330.68324
1118Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’22.3810.83121
1214Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’22.3870.83720
1317Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’22.4920.94226
1412Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’22.5300.98025
1515Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’22.5971.04723
1616Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’22.7161.16624
177Michael SchumacherMercedes1’22.8681.31830
188Nico RosbergMercedes1’22.9311.38130
1920Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault1’24.0362.48620
2021Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault1’24.5472.99718
2125Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth1’25.2243.67422
2224Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth1’25.4973.94721
2322Pedro de la RosaHRT-Cosworth1’26.7855.23520
2423Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1’26.8985.34826

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’24.5461’23.8141’21.550-2.26468
2Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’22.8211’21.9951’21.643-0.35267
3Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’24.6081’22.8241’21.671-1.15372
4Bruno SennaWilliams-Renault1’22.2531’21.876-0.37756
5Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’23.3971’22.5821’21.884-0.69859
6Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’23.9831’22.1801’21.953-0.22764
7Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’23.6331’22.9221’22.110-0.81260
8Felipe MassaFerrari1’23.9041’22.4171’22.136-0.28169
9Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’24.5591’22.7941’22.191-0.60365
10Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’22.9221’22.7471’22.233-0.51465
11Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’24.3001’23.3371’22.381-0.95670
12Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’24.3941’23.8411’22.387-1.45467
13Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’25.5591’24.3281’22.492-1.83678
14Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’23.7131’22.530-1.18351
15Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’24.2681’24.6231’22.597-1.67173
16Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’25.3541’24.3451’22.716-1.62977
17Michael SchumacherMercedes1’23.8451’23.1601’22.868-0.29275
18Nico RosbergMercedes1’23.6281’23.1641’22.931-0.23388
19Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault1’26.7551’25.2201’24.036-1.18478
20Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’24.15224
21Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault1’26.4401’24.8231’24.547-0.27675
22Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth1’26.7051’27.1851’25.224-1.48169
23Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth1’27.0151’27.1041’25.497-1.51873
24Jules BianchiForce India-Mercedes1’25.71526
25Pedro de la RosaHRT-Cosworth1’27.1011’27.1061’26.785-0.31660
26Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1’27.8221’26.898-0.92446
27Dani ClosHRT-Cosworth1’28.17624

2012 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Image © Red Bull/Getty images

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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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29 comments on “Webber edges Hamilton in final practice”

  1. Hmm…hard call. Hamilton is still my favorite for the pole but it’s so tight. Vettel and Alonso looks a little bit uncomfortable in FP3. Mercedes seems very serious. in bad way. I expect another exciting qualifying.

    1. also I’m not sure why Ferrari did least laps…hmm.

      1. They seem to have gotten their balance spot on, at least Alonso’s. Wouldnt have wanted a stray accident or a puncture to ruin their setup, i guess!

  2. This looks like it’s going to be a close qualifying between Mclaren & Red Bull!

  3. I think we can assume that Senna could be one to watch this weekend being that high for two of the practice sessions. And I would hope that Mercedes are trying to sort out their race pace. They need to.

    1. I think we can assume that Senna could be one to watch this weekend being that high for two of the practice sessions.

      Based on his performances throughout the year, I think Senna is one for the drivers to watch out for as well – because he’s probably going to last all of two corners before losing his front wing.

      Two fast times in practice do not suddenly make him worthy of the seat.

      1. because he’s probably going to last all of two corners before losing his front wing.

        It has sort of become a race to see who loses his front wing on the first few corners, with lead contenders being Grosjean, Senna, Maldonado, etc.

    2. the merc did not look any ‘heavier’ than the other cars, specially when running on softs. I doubt the merc were sandbagging, they seem to have a BIIIG problem with track temp more than 30-35 degrees!

      If anything, dont put ut stakes on Merc-in-Q2! ;-)

  4. Red Bull is thanking the FIA for fixing their engine mapping as we speak.

  5. The track temp dropped 3-4 deg towards the end, as hamilton and raikkonen started their soft lap venture. Surely, both would have ‘usurped’ the RBs.

    The RBs are clearly much quicker on softs than on the prime, while macca and lotus seem almost equally good on both tyres, with a slightly better adv on the prime. Alonso’s ferrari too looked pretty much balanced on both tyres. So, it might be a tug b/w RB and Macca for pole, with Ferrari and Lotus being the podium contenders in the race, mainly because the former is faster than RB on prime, and latter better tyrewear than the Mclaren!

    If track temp>40deg, and qualy<7, then Kimi for the win surely!

  6. Unless the Mclaren doesn’t go too well on the soft tyres, it looks as though HAM has a lot of pace still up his sleeve. His run on medium tyres only a couple of tenths off WEB’s best on softs, whereas his own lap on softs was a bit scruffy.

  7. Whoa Mercedes…Going from fastest car in Monaco to almost a backmarker in Hungary, on supposedly quite similar tracks…That’s how it looks like when you let other teams out develop you and you are just fiddling with setup to get “more out of tyres”… They sure are getting more from the tyres quickly in the race, qualy was their saving grace… It will be sad but if they continue in this style, I can see them (especially the HQ) going in a way of Toyota or BMW at the end of the season.

    1. in many ways, i wish merc exit the game( as a constructor, not engine supplier ), with their tail between their legs, ASAP. And when they do that, we can have a team that could at least compete with williams, FI, sauber, without prejudice.

      This way, we can have THREE 4-way battles that can add to the excitement.

    2. I don’t think they would go at the end of this year but surely it’s possible in 2013 if they can’t recover the form.

    3. A week ago Schumacher put the car on third on the grid (and with better strategy work he should have gone past the Saubers again at the end of the race, so that would have been 4th) and now they seem to struggle with high temperatures they are a backmarker?! I don’t see it. They really aren’t brilliant but variation in form this season comes mostly from tyres and less from development race to race.

      1. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???

        Dont let the Mclaren/Ferrari/RB/Lotus engineers/management view your comment. RB has been spending millions on their new suspension since Canada, Ferrari even more on their updates like in valencia, Lotus the most innovative on their dual drs and suspension, mclaren on innumerable sidepods and other aero gimmicks.

        If anything, as @Overwatch has also commented, merc have simply seemed to ignored the development race, and fixated on tyres. come second half after summer break, and they would be racing with STRs, or have they already!!!

  8. Sean (@spaceman1861)
    28th July 2012, 11:23

    Got a good feeling about Webber :D

  9. Speaking of mercedes, Costa has not really been adding any value to the design right?

    I mean, he is more of a front wing/nose specialist, and there doesnt seem to be any great improvs in that area. too much time spent in the Byrne’s shadows at ferrari? Looks more like a yes-sir man for Ross Brawn.

    1. Now I’m sure most people would agree with that Pat Fry is the right choice.

  10. Hamilton on pole for me . Superb lap on the medium tyres and definitely more pace to come from the softs.

    1. oversteer issue on hammy’s car. That, and their relative poor tyre management, means a flash in the pan for poor hamilton, unless safety car happens. Pole surely, 3+ in race!a fry in the pan

  11. Mercedes told sky germany that they were running over half tanks & concentrating on race setup/tyre wear rather than low fuel lap time.

    both drivers are happy with race setup & the team are happy with there race pace & tyre wear.

    1. Oh that changes things, thanks…

  12. @keithcollantine we need a tyres column.

    1. @jcost Kinda pointless without fuel data though.

      1. @andrewtanner, the more info the better, if we could add a fuel load column… :)

        1. @jcost But we’re not privy to that data and even if we were, qualifying is a whole other beast :D

          1. yes, we can’t get that. Actually the asymmetric information environment of FP is part of the game, ins’t it?

  13. Just wanna c Lewis have fair crack of the whip he seems not to get that too many tech and pit crew probs. He is the best driver out there by far.

Comments are closed.