Nico Rosberg topped this morning’s third and final free practice ahead of Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.057 seconds to complete a clean sweep of all three sessions ahead of this weekend’s German Grand Prix. I don’t know what the strategy will be – we’ll look through that tonight.
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Indeed, should Hamilton want to win, it is probable that he will have to overtake Rosberg at a later stage in the race with the odds of a collision between the pair becoming ever greater.
In a team statement, Hamilton expanded: “My final lap just didn’t work out”. The Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were fourth and fifth respectively with Max Verstappen sixth in the other Red Bull.
Hamilton, who has a six-point advantage over Rosberg in the standings having won five of the past six races, says there was no issue with his auto and was just beaten by the faster driver. “Obviously today we’ve got a bit closer on one-lap pace than we were yesterday so let’s see”.
Hamilton told the media at the start of the season that he would be prepared to remove the device if it was introduced in 2017, a stark differing of opinion with Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg who has always been supportive.
Rosberg, who was forced to abandon his first timed run in the final phase of qualifying with a minor electronic glitch, said: “It was a great lap with just the one lap that I had”.
Mercedes will be anxious for their two drivers to make a clean start, with top management watching at what is a home event for them. Nico Rosberg was one year old at the time. “I didn’t really have much of a lock-up, it was subtle and didn’t lose me any time”. There was maybe a tenth of a second in it if there was a flawless lap.
Ricciardo’s teammate Verstappen is the only driver to win a race this season apart from Rosberg and Hamilton.
Vettel, a four-time champion with Red Bull, was hoping for a stronger showing in his first race with Ferrari in Germany. We will race hard… Vettel was born and grew up in nearby Heppenheim and considers Hockenheim his home course.
“It lost synch on all the gears and it corresponded with a warning about the throttle pedal, which was actually not to do with it, but I think that gave him a scare – nobody likes to lose control of their throttle pedal”, said Lowe. “We have fallen back”.
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It was Rosberg’s 27th pole and was particularly impressive because he had only one lap to nail it after aborting an earlier effort. It has been another miserable weekend for the Italian team so far, which started with the departure of technical director James Allison.
