Lewis Hamilton completed a clean sweep of practice sessions at the Circuit of the Americas by heading the final hour of running ahead of qualifying.
The Mercedes driver lowered the best time of the weekend to a 1’37.107 but team mate Nico Rosberg was over eight tenths of a second slower. Rosberg was twice called into the pits to have his brakes examined as the team addressed an offset in performance between the two sides of his car.
It wasn’t plain sailing for Hamilton either, who spun his car at turn 12 towards the end of his running on the medium tyres.
Williams showed their hand in final practice but their quickest driver, Felipe Massa, was well over a second slower than Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas ensured the Grove cars were decisively best of the rest.
Fernando Alonso was fifth-quickest for Ferrari while Kimi Raikkonen, ninth, was troubled by a vibration on his car.
Daniel Ricciardo put Red Bull sixth. Sebastian Vettel concentrated on his race set-up in the other car, as his pit lane start penalty means he has nothing to gain from refining his one-lap pace.
Both Force Indias made it into the top ten but the fastest McLaren was no higher than tenth. Tyre warm-up in the cool conditions of Saturday morning proved a particular problem for Jenson Button.
Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’37.107 | 13 | |
2 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’37.990 | 0.883 | 15 |
3 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’38.214 | 1.107 | 19 |
4 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’38.437 | 1.330 | 20 |
5 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’38.727 | 1.620 | 13 |
6 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 1’38.927 | 1.820 | 16 |
7 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’38.960 | 1.853 | 20 |
8 | 99 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’39.000 | 1.893 | 22 |
9 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’39.143 | 2.036 | 17 |
10 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’39.241 | 2.134 | 22 |
11 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’39.335 | 2.228 | 19 |
12 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 1’39.448 | 2.341 | 18 |
13 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1’39.561 | 2.454 | 31 |
14 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’39.582 | 2.475 | 21 |
15 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’39.688 | 2.581 | 19 |
16 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’40.208 | 3.101 | 22 |
17 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’41.443 | 4.336 | 12 |
18 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’41.765 | 4.658 | 25 |
Combined practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’39.941 | 1’39.085 | 1’37.107 | -1.978 | 59 |
2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’40.233 | 1’39.088 | 1’37.990 | -1.098 | 81 |
3 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’41.907 | 1’40.457 | 1’38.214 | -2.243 | 76 |
4 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’40.828 | 1’38.437 | -2.391 | 57 | |
5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’41.065 | 1’40.189 | 1’38.727 | -1.462 | 69 |
6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 1’42.598 | 1’40.390 | 1’38.927 | -1.463 | 51 |
7 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’41.722 | 1’40.800 | 1’38.960 | -1.84 | 69 |
8 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’42.333 | 1’41.332 | 1’39.000 | -2.332 | 78 |
9 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’41.965 | 1’40.543 | 1’39.143 | -1.4 | 72 |
10 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’40.319 | 1’40.698 | 1’39.241 | -1.078 | 85 |
11 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’40.987 | 1’40.641 | 1’39.335 | -1.306 | 86 |
12 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 1’42.329 | 1’41.158 | 1’39.448 | -1.71 | 83 |
13 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1’43.229 | 1’41.054 | 1’39.561 | -1.493 | 88 |
14 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’42.359 | 1’41.123 | 1’39.582 | -1.541 | 79 |
15 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’40.887 | 1’40.631 | 1’39.688 | -0.943 | 86 |
16 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’42.516 | 1’41.420 | 1’40.208 | -1.212 | 80 |
17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’41.110 | 1’41.443 | +0.333 | 48 | |
18 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’41.463 | 1’43.980 | 1’41.765 | +0.302 | 64 |
19 | Felipe Nasr | Williams-Mercedes | 1’41.545 | 19 | |||
20 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’41.785 | 32 |
2014 United States Grand Prix
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Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei
reiter (@reiter)
1st November 2014, 16:09
It seems McLaren’s friday performance was nothing but a mirage
Sham (@sham)
1st November 2014, 16:10
Difficult to judge if Hamilton is really that far ahead of Rosberg but the gap over the rest of the field is worrying for a challenge to Mercedes.
I hope Williams can be closer in the race – but as long as Hamilton beats Rosberg, I’m happy.
WilliamB (@william-brierty)
1st November 2014, 16:11
Already less than a second slower than the 1’36.3 2013 pole time – with the torque effect through the numerous traction zones and the reduction of downforce through fast apexes, that is jolly impressive. They may be single-mindedly competitive to the point of eliminating other teams, but F1’s powerhouses are things of technological marvel.
mantresx (@mantresx)
1st November 2014, 16:18
It would be nice at the end of the year to do a comparison with 2013 race and qualifying times and see exactly how much slower the cars are, but for using 35% less fuel they are quite impressive indeed.
WilliamB (@william-brierty)
1st November 2014, 16:54
@mantresx – Interestingly we also saw fast times at Bahrain, Canada and Monza, so the W05 does appear to have decent traction despite the torque, albeit the greater V-maxes counteract some of that effect.
Maciek (@maciek)
1st November 2014, 16:13
I wonder how many times the line ‘Fernando Alonso was fifth quickest for Ferrari’ these pages have seen this season. My driver of the year, no doubt.
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
1st November 2014, 16:13
I’d say that the Merc drivers probably have done roughly the same mileage this weekend with Hamilton getting hampered in FP2 and Rosberg getting hampered in FP3.
Xusen (@xusen)
1st November 2014, 16:25
@ultimateuzair Looking at the total laps for each driver so far over the 3 sessions…it reads 59 for HAM and 81 for Rosberg.
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
1st November 2014, 16:25
Nop. As it says on the article, Rosberg did 81 laps and Hamilton 59.
usukpam (@usukpam)
1st November 2014, 16:28
Not sure about that, FP1,FP2,FP3 total laps for both : Ham= 59, Ros=81
Sham (@sham)
1st November 2014, 16:53
22 laps difference means Hamilton had completed less than 75% of the distance Rosberg has.
Making his performance pretty spectacular.
I think Rosberg is starting to look a little pressured, which with his habit of making deafening clangers isn’t a good sign for him.