Rosberg quickest as Suzuka bites Hamilton

2014 Japanese Grand Prix third practice

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Nico Rosberg sustained Mercedes’ run of quickest times in practice at Suzuka, but his team mate was caught out by the unforgiving Japanese track.

Lewis Hamilton had just begun his first flying run on the softer medium tyres when he ran wide in the first corner. The Mercedes driver skidded across the gravel trap and crunched the front-left corner of his car against a barrier, leaving his team with a repair job before the crucial qualifying session.

Before the end of the session both Lotus drivers committed almost identical mistakes at the same corner. But the pair managed to stop their cars just short of the barrier and return to the track.

Despite Hamilton’s problems the two Mercedes drivers again posted the fastest times of the session. They were followed by Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari and Valtteri Bottas, who again demonstrated strong pace in his Williams.

Daniel Ricciardo avoided a repeat of his Friday crash and ended the session fifth-fastest. But this time it was his team mate in trouble – and not for the first time this year the cause was his power unit.

Following the shock news of his impending departure from Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel’s managed only two laps before heading to the garage, race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin telling him a software fix had failed to solve the glitch.

Kimi Raikkonen was also halted by problems on his Ferrari, and ended the session three places ahead of Vettel in 12th.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
16Nico RosbergMercedes1’33.22814
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’34.2100.98210
314Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’34.4391.21112
419Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’34.5641.33612
577Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’35.0611.83316
63Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’35.0861.85813
720Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’35.2512.02316
825Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’35.4942.2668
926Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’35.5382.31017
1022Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’35.5492.32116
1127Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’35.7322.50415
127Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’35.9952.7675
1311Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’36.3653.1378
1421Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’36.4073.17922
151Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’36.4603.2326
168Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’36.5583.33019
1713Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’36.6173.38912
1899Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’36.6263.39820
199Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1’37.3674.13912
204Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1’37.8834.65517
2117Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1’38.1024.87415
2210Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1’38.7845.55612

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Nico RosbergMercedes1’35.4611’35.3181’33.228-2.0968
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’35.6121’35.0781’34.210-0.86864
3Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’36.0371’36.6371’34.439-1.59857
4Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’38.0121’37.7001’34.564-3.13652
5Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’36.5761’36.2791’35.061-1.21865
6Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’37.4661’37.1861’35.086-2.143
7Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’37.3271’36.7141’35.251-1.46371
8Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’37.2191’35.494-1.72527
9Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’37.7141’36.9431’35.538-1.40570
10Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’37.6491’36.4091’35.549-0.8668
11Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’38.5821’37.5041’35.732-1.77240
12Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’37.1871’36.5291’35.995-0.53443
13Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’38.3241’37.7861’36.365-1.42126
14Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’39.3181’38.3651’36.407-1.95849
15Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’37.6861’36.4361’36.460+0.02456
16Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’38.8511’37.5631’36.558-1.00571
17Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’39.0971’37.7981’36.617-1.18165
18Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’39.0461’38.0101’36.626-1.38464
19Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1’40.0311’39.0691’37.367-1.70252
20Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1’41.7571’39.3331’37.883-1.4556
21Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1’41.5801’39.3061’38.102-1.20445
22Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault1’38.15722
23Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1’42.7601’38.784-3.97615
24Roberto MerhiCaterham-Renault1’41.47224

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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11 comments on “Rosberg quickest as Suzuka bites Hamilton”

  1. And Massa. But Bottas was only half a second back.

  2. Formula-I (@)
    4th October 2014, 4:22

    Did Hamilton had a technical problem???

    1. Nope he locked all four wheels but couldn’t stop the car. He went into that corner with too much speed.

      But the difference between him and roaberg was huge in Hard tyres. Expecting him to win the race.

      1. Don’t think it’ll be that simple. Rosberg made an error in S1 on his fastest lap on hard tyres.

    2. Yes – problem with the nut holding the steering wheel ;)

      He ran off the road all by himself (but no doubt will still get lots of votes for DOTW).

      1. Aww… diddums :)

      2. Everyone knows the amount of votes a driver gets for DOTW is directly proportional to the number of broadcast passes – laps completed radio.

      3. Formula-I (@)
        4th October 2014, 5:22

        Over DOTW i never vote for Lewis since I made my account
        Canada – Rosberg
        Austria – Bottas
        Great Britain – Button
        Germany – Bottas
        Hungary – Vergne
        Belgium – Ricciardo
        Italy – Maldonado
        Singapore – Massa

  3. To find an invisible limit, you must go past it. That’s the excuse I use when I crash :)

  4. Surprisingly big jump in lap time from FP2 to FP3, glad I stayed up so I could change my pole prediction time :P

    1. Friday engines are getting really worn? ))

Comments are closed.