Red Bull quickest as Mercedes hold back in rain

The Red Bull drivers headed a rain-hit final practice session at Silverstone as the Mercedes pair did not set times.

With the track 18 seconds slower than it was yesterday Sebastian Vettel headed the times despite briefly sliding off the track at Becketts. Team mate Daniel Ricciardo was second-fastest.

The Lotus pair were next, Pastor Maldonado third-fastest ahead of Romain Grosjean. The latter had a spin at the exit of the final corner and narrowly avoided hitting the pit wall.

However Jules Bianchi was not so fortunate. Late in the session when the rain intensified the Marussia driver slid off at Stowe and nudged the barrier. Adrian Sutil and Lewis Hamilton also went off separately at the same corner, without hitting anything.

The unfavourable conditions discouraged drivers from doing much running, with only six of them getting their lap counts into double digits. The track never dried sufficiently for slick tyres to be used.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’52.522		6
2	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1’52.631	0.109	6
3	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1’53.044	0.522	10
4	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1’53.566	1.044	6
5	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1’53.585	1.063	12
6	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’53.654	1.132	15
7	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1’53.911	1.389	5
8	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’54.041	1.519	6
9	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1’54.217	1.695	4
10	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1’54.558	2.036	5
11	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’54.602	2.080	6
12	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1’55.003	2.481	4
13	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1’55.688	3.166	6
14	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’56.274	3.752	13
15	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1’56.918	4.396	7
16	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1’57.091	4.569	10
17	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1’57.586	5.064	6
18	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1’57.914	5.392	10
19	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari			1
20	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari			4
21	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes			4
22	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes			5

Combined practice times

Pos	Driver	Car	FP1	FP2	FP3	Fri/Sat diff.	Total laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’36.155	1’34.508			41
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’35.424	1’34.736			64
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’36.263	1’35.244			59
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1’36.623	1’35.511	1’52.631	+17.12	38
5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’36.921	1’35.627	1’52.522	+16.895	53
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes		1’36.016	1’54.217	+18.201	37
7	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’36.963	1’36.228	1’54.041	+17.813	65
8	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1’37.231	1’36.299	1’53.911	+17.612	70
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1’36.706	1’36.554	1’54.558	+18.004	57
10	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’37.227	1’36.583	1’54.602	+18.019	57
11	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1’39.461	1’36.671	1’55.003	+18.332	40
12	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’37.175	1’36.778	1’53.654	+16.876	75
13	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’38.056	1’36.951	1’56.274	+19.323	66
14	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault		1’37.064	1’53.044	+15.98	45
15	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1’37.910	1’37.097	1’53.566	+16.469	60
16	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1’37.720	1’37.236	1’56.918	+19.682	66
17	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes		1’37.449	1’55.688	+18.239	33
18	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari		1’37.520	1’53.585	+16.065	37
19	Daniel Juncadella	Force India-Mercedes	1’38.083				23
20	Giedo van der Garde	Sauber-Ferrari	1’38.328				19
21	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1’38.917	1’38.658	1’57.586	+18.928	29
22	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault		1’39.068	1’57.914	+18.846	41
23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1’39.814	1’39.224			53
24	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1’40.597	1’39.762	1’57.091	+17.329	50
25	Robin Frijns	Caterham-Renault	1’42.261				11
26	Susie Wolff	Williams-Mercedes	1’44.212				4

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10 comments on “Red Bull quickest as Mercedes hold back in rain”

BasCB (@bascb)
5th July 2014, 11:21

Hm, so I guess Mercedes is fast, but might it be that they are a tidbit worried about reliability now?
1. Franton
  5th July 2014, 11:38
  
  Or they’ve forecasted a wet weekend and they don’t want to burn up their limited sets of wet tyres.
  1. hunocsi (@hunocsi)
    5th July 2014, 11:41
    
    Or they know it won’t be wet anymore (as I read some forecasts) so they thought it’s needless to run.
    1. petebaldwin (@)
      5th July 2014, 11:44
      
      Must be that way round. If they think it’s going to rain, they’d be mad to not get some practice in!
      1. bosyber (@bosyber)
        5th July 2014, 11:45
        
        Wolff said something about saving tyres @petebaldwin so maybe not.
      2. hunocsi (@hunocsi)
        5th July 2014, 12:08
        
        @bosyber I don’t think running one set of tyres off is that much of a waste.
        
        By the way, how would the teams cope for a whole weekend if it was wet all along? 3 sets of wets and 4 sets of inters don’t sound like much…
      3. bosyber (@bosyber)
        5th July 2014, 12:17
        
        Well @hunocsi, I agree, especially since it looks like it will be dryer for the rest of the weekend. But, if I heard Wolff correctly, apparently some within Mercedes do …
U2F1 (@u2f1)
5th July 2014, 11:36

is it gonna be a wet quali or the track will dry up before that?
sato113 (@sato113)
5th July 2014, 11:59

Hamilton did 5 laps, did he mess.up.every one? That guy does not.know.how.to.string a lap together
HK (@me4me)
5th July 2014, 12:37

a bit off topic: I just love the looks of the RB10. I honestly think, for me, it’s one of the most beautiful F1 cars of recent years.