Valtteri Bottas emerged on top of a very close final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Both Williams drivers appeared in the top three at the end of the final hour of practice, separated by just five hundredths of a second, with Lewis Hamilton in between them.
Hamilton ended the session three-tenths of a second of his best time from practice yesterday with team mate Nico Rosberg fifth after suffering understeer during his final run.
Rosberg was surprisingly demoted by the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat, who lapped within a tenth of a second of Bottas’s best.
The last two turns on the Red Bull Ring continued to catch out drivers, including Kamui Kobayashi who spun his Caterham but was able to get going again.
Both Force India drivers also ran wide and hit the bumps in the grass, with Sergio Perez taking a particularly wild ride but managing to stay out of the barriers.
However Jenson Button’s session ended after just four laps when he discovered his car’s engine braking had failed.
Combined practice times
| Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’11.435 | 1’09.542 | 1’09.898 | +0.356 | 75 |
| 2 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’12.114 | 1’10.519 | 1’09.848 | -0.671 | 66 |
| 3 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’11.756 | 1’10.521 | 1’09.901 | -0.62 | 60 |
| 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’11.295 | 1’09.919 | 1’09.999 | +0.08 | 68 |
| 5 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’12.372 | 1’11.261 | 1’09.927 | -1.334 | 70 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’11.606 | 1’10.470 | 1’10.054 | -0.416 | 57 |
| 7 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 1’12.570 | 1’10.920 | 1’10.392 | -0.528 | 55 |
| 8 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’12.313 | 1’10.936 | 1’10.449 | -0.487 | 68 |
| 9 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’12.365 | 1’10.974 | 1’10.488 | -0.486 | 67 |
| 10 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’12.988 | 1’10.807 | 1’10.562 | -0.245 | 60 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’12.072 | 1’11.935 | 1’10.683 | -1.252 | 61 |
| 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 1’13.642 | 1’11.765 | 1’10.776 | -0.989 | 56 |
| 13 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’11.839 | 1’10.813 | 1’14.327 | +3.514 | 48 |
| 14 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’12.364 | 1’10.972 | 1’11.043 | +0.071 | 61 |
| 15 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1’13.168 | 1’12.262 | 1’11.103 | -1.159 | 68 |
| 16 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’12.009 | 1’11.296 | 1’11.235 | -0.061 | 54 |
| 17 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’14.691 | 1’11.806 | 1’11.294 | -0.512 | 66 |
| 18 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’12.984 | 1’11.491 | 1’11.558 | +0.067 | 65 |
| 19 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Ferrari | 1’13.738 | 1’12.279 | 1’11.848 | -0.431 | 57 |
| 20 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Ferrari | 1’13.857 | 1’12.229 | 1’12.915 | +0.686 | 57 |
| 21 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham-Renault | 1’14.611 | 1’12.937 | 1’12.320 | -0.617 | 47 |
| 22 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham-Renault | 1’17.501 | 1’13.596 | 1’12.892 | -0.704 | 75 |
2014 Austrian Grand Prix
- Bottas wins Driver of the Weekend after first podium
- F1’s return to Austria produced a middling race
- 2014 Austrian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Top ten pictures from the 2014 Austrian Grand Prix
- Vote for your 2014 Austrian GP Driver of the Weekend
Image © Williams/LAT
Ivan B (@njoydesign)
21st June 2014, 11:16
Good stuff from Dani =) I hope he carries this over into qualy. He knows the track and has been saying he likes it a lot.
Interesting to note that it were only Mercedes pair to not improve on their Friday’s times. Saving the engine?
Ivan B (@njoydesign)
21st June 2014, 11:20
yeah, I know there are also Button, Vergne, Chilton and Gutierrez who didn’t improve, but two of them had tech problems, while the other two were within 0.07
Damonw
21st June 2014, 11:20
Hamilton going strangely backwards as per usual on a Saturday and the team messing with his car with 10 minutes left in the session. Still they’ve got to keep the show alive haven’t they…..
Dan
21st June 2014, 12:44
I agree DamonW. why change for the sake of it.
Palle (@palle)
21st June 2014, 11:21
Surprise, surprise. Very good work from Williams and Dani. Looking forward to qualifying.
Michael C
21st June 2014, 11:31
Its like Red Bull are allowed in the Merc garage every Friday night.
Rigi (@rigi)
21st June 2014, 11:37
what to predict, what to predict… i’d have put mercedes on top, but obviously we don’t know wheter it’s actually this close up front.
Damonw
21st June 2014, 11:39
You’ve heard it first, Redbull are a massive threat for pole today. They’ve definitely been hiding their true pace IMO.
Ivan B (@njoydesign)
21st June 2014, 11:54
only if it rains IMHO
Damonw
21st June 2014, 12:04
No I think they’ve got a great shot to at least split the Mercedes.
iAltair (@)
21st June 2014, 12:06
Am I seeing the times wrongly or something? They look further back.
Damonw
21st June 2014, 12:16
The times mean jack in practice, if you take care to actually watch the practice you’ll see they were massively sandbagging.
Sri Harsha (@harsha)
21st June 2014, 12:09
Hoping is good but over confidence is not good , If we get into Second Row its great thing as far as FP went.