Hamilton quickest by less than a tenth in final practice

Lewis Hamilton topped the time sheets for the third consecutive session at the Hungaroring ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session.

But Hamilton’s championship rival Nico Rosberg was only 0.047 seconds adrift of his Mercedes team mate, with Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull third fastest almost four tenths slower than the Silver Arrows.

When the session began, Hamilton immediately set about on a long fuel run and was heard complaining of a lack of braking response over team radio. Mercedes confirmed that both Hamilton and Rosberg were running only Carbone Industrie brakes for this session.

The tarmac run-off around the Hungaroring saw plenty of early action, with Kamui Kobayashi and Romain Grosjean running wide at Turn Four and Nico Rosberg and Marcus Ericsson both missing Turn 12 entirely.

With all cars focussing on runs on the Medium compound tyre, Valtteri Bottas was the first driver to eclipse the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg at the top of the time sheets, before Daniel Ricciardo became the first driver to break the 1’26 barrier in the session soon after.

Fernando Alonso ventured out for his first timed run more than halfway into the session and immediately posted the quickest time on Medium tyres, before Hamilton lowered the benchmark by almost three tenths of a second.

With just under fifteen minutes to go, the track fell silent as the teams prepared for their usual qualifying simulation runs. Alonso was the first driver to set a time on the Soft tyres, improving his best by 1.1 seconds compared to the Medium compound.

Nico Rosberg then went fastest on a 1’24.501, despite running wide at Turn 14, but was soon bested by Hamilton who posted the quickest time of the weekend with a 1’24.048.

Rosberg improved his personal best at the end of the session and was only 0.047 slower than his team mate. Behind the Mercedes, the two Red Bulls of Vettel and Ricciardo were the quickest out of the rest of the field.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’24.048		21
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’24.095	0.047	24
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’24.455	0.407	16
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1’24.678	0.630	15
5	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1’24.685	0.637	21
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’24.769	0.721	11
7	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1’24.818	0.770	19
8	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1’24.867	0.819	21
9	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’25.162	1.114	17
10	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’25.170	1.122	19
11	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1’25.231	1.183	18
12	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’25.468	1.420	14
13	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1’25.829	1.781	22
14	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1’25.859	1.811	19
15	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1’25.934	1.886	21
16	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’26.023	1.975	23
17	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1’26.035	1.987	19
18	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1’26.142	2.094	17
19	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1’27.560	3.512	23
20	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1’28.083	4.035	17
21	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1’28.605	4.557	22
22	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1’28.821	4.773	14

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13 comments on “Hamilton quickest by less than a tenth in final practice”

wayne o
26th July 2014, 11:23

Hami posted the fastest time but I do not think that was his fastest possible time.I think he merely driving home the point that this is his track.
Naijafanatic
26th July 2014, 11:38

Lewis looks very racy, impressed with how close ROS is over one lap, as a HAM fan, it’s gonna be a nail-biting quali sesh
AbeyG (@1abe)
26th July 2014, 11:57

Wat on earth has happened to Force India?!? They are 2 seconds behind the Mercedes and are only ahead of Caterham and Marussia! It’s FP3 but if this is more or less of how their quali maybe then I am worried they may not end up in points altogether this race.
1. ECWDanSelby (@ecwdanselby)
  26th July 2014, 12:09
  
  I’d say this is the antithesis of a Force India track.
2. Akhilesh (@graywizzard)
  26th July 2014, 12:10
  
  Either they are hiding their real pace or they are loosing chunks of time in the last few sectors..
3. Catered Ham
  26th July 2014, 13:45
  
  i’d say their setup is all FRIC’d up…
Paul2013
26th July 2014, 12:05

MERCEDES quickest saving fuel and tyres against family vans… same story this year.
Michael C (@surface)
26th July 2014, 12:06

Rosberg’s pace worries me, he posted that time on his 3rd flying lap. Hopefully Lewis has kept something special back for qually – just not a brake issue.
1. Shrieker (@shrieker)
  26th July 2014, 12:10
  
  Hamilton left at least a tenth on the table on turn 12. Was watching on board, even Bruno mentioned it.
matt
26th July 2014, 12:44

lewis was taking it easy.remember on mediums he went quickest on 12 lap old tyres.he could have gone quicker on those softs if he had of stayed out,but no need.
Bobby (@f1bobby)
26th July 2014, 13:12

And then his car set on fire when it mattered. Come on Mercedes, get it sorted. Rosberg is the luckiest WDC in history.
tino852 (@tino852)
26th July 2014, 13:12

And he catches fire…….
Ola
26th July 2014, 13:17

I think Lewis is royally been screwed up