Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, Silverstone, 2014

Red Bull quickest as Mercedes hold back in rain

2014 British Grand Prix third practice

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Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, Silverstone, 2014The 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

Image © Red Bull/Getty

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

  1. Hm, so I guess Mercedes is fast, but might it be that they are a tidbit worried about reliability now?

    1. Or they’ve forecasted a wet weekend and they don’t want to burn up their limited sets of wet tyres.

      1. 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. Wolff said something about saving tyres @petebaldwin so maybe not.

          2. @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. 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 …

  2. is it gonna be a wet quali or the track will dry up before that?

  3. Hamilton did 5 laps, did he mess.up.every one? That guy does not.know.how.to.string a lap together

  4. 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.

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