Nico Rosberg set the quickest lap of Interlagos so far this weekend as he pipped team mate Lewis Hamilton in the final practice session.
The last hour of running before today’s qualifying session began on a damp track following earlier rain, but drivers were soon able to use slick tyres.
Using the soft compound Rosberg produced a lap of 1’11.740 which was within half a second of his pole position time from last year. Hamilton ended up less than a tenth of a second shy of his team mate. According to Hamilton’s engineer he had carried slightly more speed than Rosberg into Pinheirinho which accounted for some of the gap.
Sebastian Vettel was the last of the front runners to set a time and the only non-Mercedes driver to lap the track in less than 72 seconds. He led a closely-knit trio with him, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen separated by less than two-tenths.
Renault had an encouraging session as Jolyon Palmer split the Williams pair for the eighth-quickest time. Palmer suffered heavy vibrations earlier in the session after locking up at turn one.
Following his stoppage yesterday Fernando Alonso put his McLaren inside the top ten. However team mate Jenson Button had a strange incident when his team lost data from his car, leading him to make an early pit stop.
Romain Grosjean had a spin at Descida do Lago on his way to the 15th-quickest time. Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson was out of luck as an engine problem forced him back in after a single lap.
Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’11.740 | 19 | |
2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’11.833 | 0.093 | 21 |
3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’11.959 | 0.219 | 14 |
4 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’12.027 | 0.287 | 16 |
5 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’12.077 | 0.337 | 19 |
6 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’12.287 | 0.547 | 21 |
7 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’12.614 | 0.874 | 27 |
8 | 30 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’12.968 | 1.228 | 19 |
9 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’12.990 | 1.250 | 26 |
10 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’13.002 | 1.262 | 12 |
11 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’13.203 | 1.463 | 14 |
12 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’13.231 | 1.491 | 19 |
13 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1’13.255 | 1.515 | 15 |
14 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’13.293 | 1.553 | 20 |
15 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’13.344 | 1.604 | 15 |
16 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas-Ferrari | 1’13.596 | 1.856 | 16 |
17 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’13.609 | 1.869 | 13 |
18 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | 1’13.750 | 2.010 | 9 |
19 | 94 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor-Mercedes | 1’13.972 | 2.232 | 20 |
20 | 12 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’13.992 | 2.252 | 14 |
21 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Manor-Mercedes | 1’14.222 | 2.482 | 21 |
Third practice visual gaps
Nico Rosberg – 1’11.740
+0.093 Lewis Hamilton – 1’11.833
+0.219 Sebastian Vettel – 1’11.959
+0.287 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’12.027
+0.337 Max Verstappen – 1’12.077
+0.547 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’12.287
+0.874 Valtteri Bottas – 1’12.614
+1.228 Jolyon Palmer – 1’12.968
+1.250 Felipe Massa – 1’12.990
+1.262 Fernando Alonso – 1’13.002
+1.463 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’13.203
+1.491 Sergio Perez – 1’13.231
+1.515 Kevin Magnussen – 1’13.255
+1.553 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’13.293
+1.604 Romain Grosjean – 1’13.344
+1.856 Esteban Gutierrez – 1’13.596
+1.869 Daniil Kvyat – 1’13.609
+2.232 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’13.972
+2.252 Felipe Nasr – 1’13.992
+2.482 Esteban Ocon – 1’14.222
Combined practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’12.125 | 1’12.301 | 1’11.740 | -0.385 | 85 |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’11.895 | 1’12.271 | 1’11.833 | -0.062 | 94 |
3 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’13.567 | 1’13.002 | 1’11.959 | -1.043 | 83 |
4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’11.991 | 1’12.928 | 1’12.077 | +0.086 | 93 |
5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’13.569 | 1’13.047 | 1’12.027 | -1.02 | 66 |
6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’12.371 | 1’12.828 | 1’12.287 | -0.084 | 91 |
7 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’13.129 | 1’12.761 | 1’12.614 | -0.147 | 110 |
8 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’13.318 | 1’12.789 | 1’12.990 | +0.201 | 102 |
9 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’14.908 | 1’14.436 | 1’12.968 | -1.468 | 94 |
10 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’14.296 | 1’13.572 | 1’13.002 | -0.57 | 56 |
11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’13.293 | 1’13.299 | 1’13.203 | -0.09 | 89 |
12 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’13.289 | 1’13.918 | 1’13.231 | -0.058 | 88 |
13 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1’14.109 | 1’13.255 | -0.854 | 62 | |
14 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’13.711 | 1’13.801 | 1’13.293 | -0.418 | 89 |
15 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’14.507 | 1’14.074 | 1’13.344 | -0.73 | 75 |
16 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | 1’14.252 | 1’13.440 | 1’13.750 | +0.31 | 55 |
17 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas-Ferrari | 1’14.558 | 1’13.596 | -0.962 | 58 | |
18 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’14.090 | 1’13.689 | 1’13.609 | -0.08 | 74 |
19 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor-Mercedes | 1’14.948 | 1’14.958 | 1’13.972 | -0.976 | 74 |
20 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’14.631 | 1’14.309 | 1’13.992 | -0.317 | 75 |
21 | Esteban Ocon | Manor-Mercedes | 1’14.827 | 1’14.317 | 1’14.222 | -0.095 | 97 |
22 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’14.654 | 1’14.695 | 45 | ||
23 | Charles Leclerc | Haas-Ferrari | 1’15.391 | 27 | |||
24 | Sergey Sirotkin | Renault | 1’15.800 | 10 |
Cobray (@)
12th November 2016, 14:21
Lewis run later and had tow on the start – finish straight on his run, Rosberg is looking good.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
12th November 2016, 14:26
C’mon, it was only a pip.
ThisNoNameID2 (@patienceandtime)
12th November 2016, 14:37
I heard on Sky F1 saying that Toto Wolf called Max father saying that Max shouldn’t get involved in the championship. Too me this shows that Mercedes will do anything to make Rosberg WDC by all means, this so silly. This to me confirms that the team handicapped Hamilton (rialibility issues) to benefit Rosberg. #rosbergfakewdc
dex022 (@dex022)
12th November 2016, 14:38
Wanna tin foil hats shops recommendation?
ThisNoNameID2 (@patienceandtime)
12th November 2016, 15:05
@dex022 Have you not seen FP3 ?
sethje (@seth-space)
12th November 2016, 14:47
Not sure how this would benefit ROS and not HAM.
But the Wolff action itself is very ridiculous of course. All drivers are there to race.. not to watch two men fighting for WDC,
Feuerdrache (@xenomorph91)
12th November 2016, 14:48
Exactly. This is also why they asked Rosberg to move over in Monaco 2016 to help Hamilton.
Short memory, @patienceandtime?
ThisNoNameID2 (@patienceandtime)
12th November 2016, 14:55
@xenomorph91 Because Rosberg was holding up a good team result because he simply was slow, the fact that Hamilton won of that decision proves it.
Gabriel Rocha (@gabrielrocha)
12th November 2016, 15:51
What a read is that Toto called Jos because he doesn’t want Max to risk a crash with the championship contenders, to avoid the championship being decided by an accident, wich I can kind of support, if he is refering to the kind of maneuver we saw against Rosberg on lap one in Mexico. Soo, to me, it sounds like he is preventing a crash, not stopping the drivers to fight for position.
Cheers!
Patrick (@paeschli)
12th November 2016, 17:04
The burst of laughter from Toto after Hamilton took pole tells another story @patienceandtime
Johnny H.
12th November 2016, 14:48
Yep reading it everywhere! If it’s true, I’m hoping Max will beat them both in the rain or at least making it for one of the two impossible to fight for the championship. ….Seems Merc got a bit snobbish!
Johnny H.
12th November 2016, 14:50
…wanted to reply to @patienceandtime
faulty (@faulty)
12th November 2016, 15:09
If Max can beat both in the rain, he’ll probably bin it in an uncalled pitstop or run into the back of a backmarker or some other amateur stuff like he’s done in the past.
sethje (@seth-space)
12th November 2016, 15:16
The only crash verstappen was involved was with Grosjean Monaco and Grosjean could still drive ( not Verstappen he lost a wheel there ) So explain what you mean here.
Uncalled pitstops hardly give you a advantage ;)
CarlD
12th November 2016, 15:27
Let’s face it. At Monaco, under the rain, Lewis was faster than Nico. for the simple reason that in the wet Hamilton is better than Rosberg. He would eventually have passed Nico but the delay in doing so would have let Ricciardo establish an unsurmountable gap. This would not have been beneficial to the team and in the end there was not much Nico would have gained in staying ahead of Hamilton.
Of course, some armchair drivers here would have made mincemeat of Rosberg in no time flat. But of course, for them Lewis is just not up to par. Wonder how he got to drive for Merc?
To many people, none wearing tin hats, this year, Merc has favored Rosberg. It is no secret that Lauda dislikes Hamilton. His disparaging comments are all over the place. And in this case Rosberg winning a championship in a Merc speaks marvels of the marque. Lewis was a champion when he joined Mercedes. Rosberg up to now, the oldest driver in the scuderia is still not yet a Champion. The concept that the car is so good it makes you the winner is good advertising meme.
Eventually, the only way for Hamilton is out at the end of 2017. He will probably be replaced by a German. i.e.
Pascal Wherlein the DTM champ.
If the marque is still as competitive as today, Nico will rack a few more championships unless, of course, Pascal outdrives him which probably will hurt him more than his old nemesis. Anyway, germans driving german cars.
Deutschland doing its own Brexit.
Where will Hamilton go? He might and he might not stay in F1 as he will pursue other endeavours in other areas of his competence, music, recording, labels, fashion… Who knows.
And some here badmouthing him will just have to look from below as he soars to new heights.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th November 2016, 17:55
Ocon drops 3 grid places for blocking Palmer in Q1. That puts Ocon dead last starting tomorrow, and promotes the Saubers ahead by one spot.
Apparently, the Manor pitwall failed to warn Ocon about Palmer’s approaching car.