Vettel leads brake-troubled Hamilton in final practice

2017 Austrian Grand Prix third practice

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Sebastian Vettel was quickest for Ferrari in the final practice session at the Austrian Grand Prix.

A brake problem struck Lewis Hamilton,who led both of yesterday’s practice session, sending him off the track at turn three late in the session.

Vettel therefore ended the last hour of running quickest by two-tenths of a second ahead of Hamilton. The Mercedes driver goes into today’s qualifying session knowing he will take a five-place penalty on the grid.

Their team mates were next, Valtteri Bottas ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, the latter complaining of unusual wheelspin at the exit of turn three.

The Red Bull pair were next ahead of the two Haas drivers and the Toro Rosso pair. Carlos Sainz Jnr came to a stop early in the session with a suspected power unit problem. However he was able to rejoin later on after his car had been brought back to the pits.

Fernando Alonso, who had to revert back to Honda’s older specification power unit, was 15th and the last of four drivers separated by less than four tenths of a second.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
15Sebastian VettelFerrari1’05.09218
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’05.3610.26921
377Valtteri BottasMercedes1’05.5150.42319
47Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’05.6110.51919
533Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’05.7840.69223
63Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’05.8960.80428
720Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’05.9360.84421
88Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’06.0150.92322
926Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’06.2791.18728
1055Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’06.2841.19219
1131Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’06.3741.28226
1227Nico HulkenbergRenault1’06.5631.47118
132Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Honda1’06.5781.48617
1430Jolyon PalmerRenault1’06.5951.50322
1514Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’06.5991.50720
1618Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’06.7761.68422
1719Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’06.8651.77324
1811Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’06.8751.78328
199Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’07.3782.28620
2094Pascal WehrleinSauber-Ferrari1’07.4682.37625

Third practice visual gaps

Sebastian Vettel – 1’05.092

+0.269 Lewis Hamilton – 1’05.361

+0.423 Valtteri Bottas – 1’05.515

+0.519 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’05.611

+0.692 Max Verstappen – 1’05.784

+0.804 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’05.896

+0.844 Kevin Magnussen – 1’05.936

+0.923 Romain Grosjean – 1’06.015

+1.187 Daniil Kvyat – 1’06.279

+1.192 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’06.284

+1.282 Esteban Ocon – 1’06.374

+1.471 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’06.563

+1.486 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’06.578

+1.503 Jolyon Palmer – 1’06.595

+1.507 Fernando Alonso – 1’06.599

+1.684 Lance Stroll – 1’06.776

+1.773 Felipe Massa – 1’06.865

+1.783 Sergio Perez – 1’06.875

+2.286 Marcus Ericsson – 1’07.378

+2.376 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’07.468

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Sebastian VettelFerrari1’06.4241’05.6301’05.092-0.53896
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’05.9751’05.4831’05.361-0.12289
3Valtteri BottasMercedes1’06.3451’05.6991’05.515-0.18495
4Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’06.8481’06.1441’05.611-0.53397
5Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’06.1651’05.8321’05.784-0.04879
6Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’06.6201’05.8731’05.896+0.02387
7Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’07.5941’06.5911’05.936-0.65594
8Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’08.0741’06.7631’06.015-0.74894
9Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’07.4371’06.9061’06.279-0.62793
10Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’07.6331’07.1001’06.284-0.81675
11Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’07.5111’06.8491’06.374-0.475115
12Nico HulkenbergRenault1’06.7351’06.563-0.17260
13Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Honda1’07.2831’06.8591’06.578-0.28185
14Jolyon PalmerRenault1’07.6491’07.6231’06.595-1.02860
15Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’07.5101’06.7321’06.599-0.13375
16Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’08.0411’07.4681’06.776-0.692103
17Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’07.5501’07.0651’06.865-0.2103
18Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’07.5091’06.875-0.63469
19Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’10.8531’08.8701’07.378-1.49283
20Pascal WehrleinSauber-Ferrari1’09.3231’08.7821’07.468-1.314103
21Sergey SirotkinRenault1’08.58627
22Alfonso CelisForce India-Mercedes1’09.28015

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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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16 comments on “Vettel leads brake-troubled Hamilton in final practice”

  1. That was weird for Hamilton, and with his 5-place penalty, I doubt he’ll do much running in qualy, I could be wrong..

    1. @arobbo Why shouldn’t he?

      1. I’m just not sure if those brakes will get fixed in time for Q1.

    2. He’ll be going hard for 6th on the grid.

    3. @arobbo He’ll want to be on pole in order to start as high up after his penalty. I think it was weird because his brakes were releasing lots of brake dust yet the team was seemingly comfortable with that.

  2. Why would he not do much running? He is likely to be fastest and start 6th.

    Lewis needs to get out early in q1 after the brake issue and do something he has never done before……..a BRAKE TEST to make sure everything is ok.

  3. I think Hulk is missing from the combined sheet Keith?

    1. Ferrari, Seb fan
      8th July 2017, 11:37

      Hulk (as you said) and perez are missing.

      1. Apologies, have corrected that.

  4. Nice to see KMag in form to, hope it lasts for qualy

  5. Why are the Saubers so slow? Are they secretly running Honda engines?

    1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      8th July 2017, 12:02

      The honda engines will be faster than the ones they have now. They have an old 2016 Ferrari engine which is the slowest of them all. They have been the slowest team almost every race. I think a Honda engine net yea will be a good opton for the team. It will be better than using a year old engine. Even if it is unreliable, I still think it will give the team more potintial to get points that they could with a year old engine. This is unlikely, but if they do go for Honda, they could have suddenly got things right and that would be interesting. There could always be a small chance of that happening.

    2. Ferrari gave them all of Kimi’s PUs from last year since they were gently previously enjoyed.

  6. Looking at the Friday Saturday difference, it looks like Ferrari have shown their hand while Red Bull and Mercedes have kept something in reserve.
    Barring more technical problems for Hamilton, I think Bottas, Vettel and Verstappen could be fighting for P2 (which is effective pole position), it will be decided by hundredths of seconds, I am sure! Should be a very exciting qualifying.

    1. Just as easy to say Merc and RB showed their hands yesterday and Ferrari are fastest when they all push.

  7. Still find it weird how far down FI and Williams are, perhaps the balance has shifted towards better chassis with the new cars.

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