Rosberg, who had signed a new two-year contract with the team earlier on Friday, swapped fastest laps with him through the session.
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Although Hamilton and Rosberg, whose relationship has come close to imploding during Mercedes’ emergence as the sport’s new dominant force, will continue as team-mates for another two seasons, the pair will enter the final year of their respective deals at the same time.
Formula One has clarified the rules on radio communication between teams and drivers in the wake of incidents that have cost competitors points this season.
There are still 13 Formula One seats remaining up for grabs in 2017 on the eve of the August mid-season break.
However, Rosberg – victor of the first four races of the season – insists he is not feeling the pressure despite heading into Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix without a podium in 10 starts at the track.
Max Verstappen took fourth for Red Bull, with Kimi Raikkonen rounding out the top six.
The team, who on Friday renewed Nico Rosberg’s contract until 2018, will not share this opinion, but for them the spectacle is bit-player to the business of winning.
‘In general I don’t look at the big picture, because the best approach for me to win races is just to focus on the weekend at hand, go for the win and that’s it’.
Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso both scored their maiden wins in Hungary, albeit with different teams, while McLaren a year ago scored their best result of a hard first season with engine partners Honda.
Hamilton has won four times at the 4.3-kilometre long Hungaroring circuit, outside Budapest, including his first victory for Mercedes in 2013.
Austrian former F1 driver Gerhard Berger had been leading the negotiations for Rosberg while the German concentrated on landing his first title, with the 31-year-old now holding a single-point lead over Hamilton. “I was a little bit anxious it would lose some of its character, but I think it’s still much the same”.
“We are very happy, we had a couple of weeks of discussions”, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said in a video.
“It means Mercedes are guaranteed to have the world champion in the vehicle next year”, Brundle said.
“It’s always very clear with the two of them this is the philosophy we follow of having absolutely equal material and equal opportunity”, added Wolff.
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However, at T11, Hamilton got onto the grip-less concrete and spun his auto into the barrier, side on, registering 10.4G, meaning a trip to the medical centre was nonnegotiable.
