The Mercedes duo were again in a league apart, with the Ferraris over a full second off the pace, Sebastian Vettel finishing ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.
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Rosberg returned to the track with 43 minutes left on the clock for his first run on supersofts, the German improving by 1.5 seconds to set a new benchmark of 1:15.517, almost two seconds quicker than Vettel at that point.
Between the re-signing of Nico Rosberg’s contract and Lewis Hamilton’s admission that he pressured FIA race director Charlie Whiting over his team-mate’s possible yellow-flag infringement during qualifying in Hungary, an interview was requested with Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff to allow him to comment on rumours that the company would withdraw from team ownership at the end of 2018.
“I am very much a believer in waves, and I’ve finally got on a good wave in the last six races, and hopefully the wave continues here this weekend”.
Reigning champion Hamilton – on a run of five wins from the last six grands prix to take the points lead from Rosberg – was not as smooth as his team-mate throughout a lap, resulting in the three-tenths deficit.
“I am wasting my time here”, he complained.
In the space of a few minutes, Raikkonen moved from first to fourth as Hamilton, Vettel and Rosberg all improved, with the German Mercedes driver going quickest before the half-hour mark with a 1:17.030. Ferrari had been able to mix it with Mercedes times earlier in the session, but only while running the SuperSofts against Merc’s Softs. He is making a home debut behind the wheel of a Ferrari. His red Bull teammate Ricciardo was.876 behind.
The Briton’s team-mate Fernando Alonso, whose 35th birthday is on Friday, was 10th fastest, 0.138secs adrift of Button.
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Behind the Red Bulls, Force India and McLaren look closely matched, with Nico Hulkenberg setting seventh fastest time, ahead of Button and the German’s team-mate Sergio Perez ahead of Alonso in ninth.
