Lewis Hamilton continued his mid-season surge of form on Friday when he topped the times ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in opening free practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
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Rosberg, who now holds a single-point lead over his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, shared with his followers a video of the signing of the new contract with Toto Wolff, CEO of Mercedes.
Hamilton, who is just one point behind championship leader Rosberg after a resurgence in recent weeks, had been fastest in first practice.
The German driver was relegated from second to third, having completed the race, after a radio dialogue with the team.
Since joining the team ahead of the 2010 season, Rosberg has contested over 100 races for the Silver Arrows, claiming 19 wins and 45 podium finishes.
“I’m never confident we’re on top of the issues [with them]”, he said.
“I have to accept that”, Rosberg said of the penalty at the drivers’ media conference.
Besides the crash in Spain, Hamilton and Rosberg also collided in the last lap of the Austrian Grand Prix, as Hamilton attempted to pass Rosberg for the lead.
Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel both lapped within a second of Rosberg, with Max Verstappen not far adrift in the second Red Bull.
Nico Rosberg held an advantage of more than half a second over his nearest rival Daniel Ricciardo during second practice and was almost a second faster than Vettel in third. But at the beginning of the season, the FIA, Formula One’s governing body, introduced stricter radio guidelines forbidding such information to be transmitted in a bid to make the sport more challenging for the driver.
The major revision to the rule requires teams to call drivers into the pits to receive instruction on a problem with the vehicle – the intention being to prevent them deliberately taking a penalty in order to pass on information.
“It was an impressive day for us, performance-wise”, Rosberg said.
“You see these MotoGP riders and they ride with broken ankles and collar bones and we have one little busted finger and they don’t want you to race, but fortunately I have no problems and the medical team did a great job”.
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Clear agreed with Symonds, saying that “people are just very tired” and the sport did not have the “luxury” of using substitutes.
