Hamilton quickest as gearbox glitch hits Rosberg

2014 Italian Grand Prix third practice

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Merceedes had one car at the top and one car at the bottom of the timing screens following the final practice session for the Italian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton set the quickest time of the weekend so far – a 1’25.519 – to lead the times ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari. He wasn’t entirely happy with his car, reporting a DRS problem at one point and, not for the first time this year, was also dissatisfied with his brakes.

But team mate Nico Rosberg has a more serious problem. Twice at the beginning of the session he returned to the pits reporting his gears “weren’t being learnt”.

Rosberg wasn’t the only driver to suffer gearbox problems – Sergio Perez pulled up at the Curva Grande, complaining his car appeared to be stuck in neutral.

Valtteri Bottas, who briefly set an identical time to Alonso’s earlier in the session, ended up a tenth of a second behind the Ferrari, followed by team mate Felipe Massa.

Jenson Button set the fastest time through the first sector but ended up fifth-fastest, making it four Mercedes-powered cars in the top five.

Their rival engine manufacturers powered the next four cars at a track where top speed is crucial: Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull was followed by Kimi Raikkonen, Daniil Kvyat (who will take an engine change penalty) and Daniel Ricciardo.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’25.51923
214Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’25.9310.41213
377Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’26.0900.57119
419Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’26.1140.59518
522Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’26.2420.72321
61Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’26.2900.77117
77Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’26.3270.80815
826Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’26.4370.91821
93Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’26.4820.96316
1027Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’26.6081.08917
1120Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’26.8291.31020
1221Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’27.2071.68818
1311Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’27.3121.79310
1425Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’27.4791.96022
1599Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’27.4981.97912
1617Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1’28.0252.50619
1713Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’28.1372.61820
1810Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1’28.2652.74621
198Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’28.4592.94014
204Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1’28.5793.06019
219Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1’29.2513.73222
226Nico RosbergMercedes3

Combined time

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’26.1871’26.2861’25.519-0.66864
2Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’27.1691’26.5651’25.931-0.63462
3Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’28.1481’26.7581’26.090-0.66874
4Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’28.1501’26.9351’26.114-0.82171
5Nico RosbergMercedes1’26.9951’26.22570
6Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’26.8101’26.7621’26.242-0.5282
7Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’27.2711’26.7621’26.290-0.47271
8Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’27.4931’26.3311’26.327-0.00473
9Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’27.7411’27.4761’26.437-1.03979
10Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’28.4871’26.9921’26.482-0.5165
11Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’28.1121’27.2271’26.608-0.61979
12Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’27.2281’26.8811’26.829-0.05294
13Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’27.6871’27.0791’27.312+0.23365
14Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’28.1141’27.8401’27.207-0.63372
15Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’28.3001’27.9291’27.479-0.4585
16Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’28.0291’27.498-0.53147
17Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1’30.0811’28.6591’28.025-0.63480
18Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’29.5121’28.7001’28.137-0.56386
19Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1’29.1781’28.265-0.91353
20Giedo van der GardeSauber-Ferrari1’28.42919
21Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’29.0851’28.459-0.62643
22Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1’30.0171’28.7861’28.579-0.20773
23Daniel JuncadellaForce India-Mercedes1’29.19210
24Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1’30.9481’29.2751’29.251-0.02475
25Charles PicLotus-Renault1’30.12523
26Roberto MerhiCaterham-Renault1’30.70429

Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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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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13 comments on “Hamilton quickest as gearbox glitch hits Rosberg”

  1. Formula Indonesia (@)
    6th September 2014, 11:12

    McLaren are serious threat for top 5
    Or may a podium

    1. Interesting to see that Button would appear to have the edge over Magnussen.

      1. Formula Indonesia (@)
        6th September 2014, 11:42

        Yeah, an he usually quicker in race compare to Qualy, so i expect him to battle with Ferrari and Williams

    2. to be honest, their race pace is not that promising compared to their nearest rivals. I don’t think they are in contention for the top5 unless there will be problems for the others

  2. It is shaping to be a close qualyfing for the Mercedes-Powered cars.Although Rosberg lost qualy practice I would put him on the front row and Hamilton for pole because of his aggresive style..Nothing to choose betwen Massa-Bottas and I hope Massa to outqualify Bottas at last.Also great lap from Alonso!

  3. Liam McShane (@)
    6th September 2014, 11:31

    Why is Ericsson still driving, he is miles of the pace.

    1. Money talks.

    2. Give the guy a break…it’s not his fault that he’s big boned…..

  4. Sometimes taking the downforce off separates the men from the boys.

    1. Max Verstappen is a boy I believe.

  5. Formula Indonesia (@)
    6th September 2014, 12:09

    Interestingly, Rosberg also missed fp3 last year, and Merc failed on Qualy, but their car was the fastest on Sunday

    1. Erm… no. The Mercedes was nowhere near the fastest car on raceday. Rosberg was stuck behind Hulkenburg for 53 laps and Hamilton? Well, that was a race to for fet for him…

  6. What exactly is meant by – his gears “weren’t being learnt”.

Comments are closed.