Hamilton leads gearbox-troubled Rosberg

2015 British Grand Prix third practice

Posted on

| Written by

Lewis Hamilton led the final practice session for the British Grand Prix after team mate Nico Rosberg suffered another gearbox problem.

Rosberg, who came to a stop during first practice yesterday with a gearbox problem, was delayed by an oil leak during the final hour of running. However the team was able to rectify the problem, which occurred on his race gearbox, and got him back on track in time to do his qualifying simulation run.

With just one lap, Rosberg ended up over half a second off the time set by his team mate. Hamilton was the only driver to lap in the 1’32s, after no one got below 1’34 yesterday.

Track conditions were significantly cooler than yesterday – surface temperatures were almost 20C down on second practice – and lap times fell quickly. Hamilton set the benchmark time on the hard compound, lapping in 1’33.333, over eight-tenths of a second quicker than the best time seen on the mediums rubber yesterday.

None of Mercedes rivals could get within 1.2 seconds of them on the hard tyres. Kimi Raikkonen led the charge in third place for Ferrari, following by Daniil Kvyat in the Red Bull and the second Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel. Daniel Ricciardo in the other Red Bull was plagued by a low-speed handling imbalance

Raikkonen maintained that third position after his medium tyre run while the Red Bull drivers slipped back. Vettel moved up to fourth while the two Toro Rosso drivers demonstrated strong one-lap pace. Max Verstappen was fifth ahead of Carlos Sainz Jnr.

The Williams drivers took seventh and eighth, while Kvyat fell to ninth ahead of Pastor Maldonado.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’32.91717
26Nico RosbergMercedes1’33.4690.55213
37Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’33.6920.77519
45Sebastian VettelFerrari1’33.9181.00116
533Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault1’34.1471.23019
655Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’34.2821.36522
719Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’34.5011.58418
877Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’34.5381.62118
926Daniil KvyatRed Bull-Renault1’34.5451.62815
1013Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Mercedes1’34.7081.79124
1127Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’34.8861.96920
123Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’34.8961.97914
1311Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’35.1212.20421
148Romain GrosjeanLotus-Mercedes1’35.2462.32921
1512Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’35.5872.67018
1622Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’35.6952.77818
179Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’35.9193.00219
1814Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’36.1013.1846
1928Will StevensManor-Ferrari1’37.9895.07218
2098Roberto MerhiManor-Ferrari1’38.2855.36817

Third practice visual gaps

Lewis Hamilton – 1’32.917

+0.552 Nico Rosberg – 1’33.469

+0.775 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’33.692

+1.001 Sebastian Vettel – 1’33.918

+1.230 Max Verstappen – 1’34.147

+1.365 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’34.282

+1.584 Felipe Massa – 1’34.501

+1.621 Valtteri Bottas – 1’34.538

+1.628 Daniil Kvyat – 1’34.545

+1.791 Pastor Maldonado – 1’34.708

+1.969 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’34.886

+1.979 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’34.896

+2.204 Sergio Perez – 1’35.121

+2.329 Romain Grosjean – 1’35.246

+2.670 Felipe Nasr – 1’35.587

+2.778 Jenson Button – 1’35.695

+3.002 Marcus Ericsson – 1’35.919

+3.184 Fernando Alonso – 1’36.101

+5.072 Will Stevens – 1’37.989

+5.368 Roberto Merhi – 1’38.285

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’34.3441’34.6211’32.917-1.42766
2Nico RosbergMercedes1’34.2741’34.1551’33.469-0.68658
3Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’35.5881’34.5021’33.692-0.8169
4Sebastian VettelFerrari1’35.7391’34.5221’33.918-0.60459
5Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault1’35.5301’35.3001’34.147-1.15373
6Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’35.6691’35.8661’34.282-1.38792
7Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’36.4691’36.1471’34.501-1.64673
8Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’36.1831’34.538-1.64551
9Daniil KvyatRed Bull-Renault1’35.8761’35.0091’34.545-0.46462
10Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Mercedes1’38.0801’36.1641’34.708-1.45664
11Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’36.1571’35.3871’34.886-0.50182
12Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’35.8181’35.1531’34.896-0.25761
13Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’36.8891’36.3511’35.121-1.2375
14Romain GrosjeanLotus-Mercedes1’36.7281’35.246-1.48242
15Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’36.8551’36.8221’35.587-1.23561
16Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’38.8601’37.1961’35.695-1.50144
17Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’37.3271’35.919-1.40855
18Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’38.2221’36.7311’36.101-0.6336
19Susie WolffWilliams-Mercedes1’37.24219
20Jolyon PalmerLotus-Mercedes1’37.26226
21Raffaele MarcielloSauber-Ferrari1’37.37217
22Will StevensManor-Ferrari1’38.9811’38.2791’37.989-0.2962
23Roberto MerhiManor-Ferrari1’40.4771’39.8781’38.285-1.59360

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

27 comments on “Hamilton leads gearbox-troubled Rosberg”

  1. Quite a convincing gap between Toro Rosso and the Williams there. Williams seem to have lost a lot of ground this season.

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      4th July 2015, 12:01

      Toro Rosso: decent car and impressive pair of rookies!

      1. I was initially impressed with the Saubers this season but the Toro Rossos have made me sit up. They are doing well.

      2. Hugely impressive chassis and impressive pair of rookies

        1. Problem is we don’t have anyone established to compare them to. Toro Rosso might have been the second fastest car all season long really, but they might have been underperforming at times, who knows…

  2. Force India seems to have slipped back. I guess they are struggling with their set-up.

  3. Mercedes should bite the bullet and change Nico’s gearbox. Whether he starts 5 or 10 places back they are guaranteed a 1-2 finish. Truth!

    1. Rosberg & Hamilton are both fighting for a world championship, so its not about a 1-2, its about which one wins the race. And changing Rosberg’s gearbox would compromise his race and he would not be able to fight Lewis for the win.

      1. It’s obvious to the world they are both chasing a championship. Nico’s been plagued with this issue since yesterday. Tomorrow’s race conditions will be more taxing than Fri/Sat practice ever could be. Better to risk 7 points than 18.

      2. I appreciate your sentiment, but who ever leads after turn 1 will probably win the race, not finishing the race would be Nico would need about 4 race wins just to recover from a DNF. If Nico has a gear box problem that isn’t terminal during the race he will probably lose at least 5 positions anyways. Silverstone isn’t Bahrain, so it would be harder for Nico to overtake the Ferrari’s. In the end it’s a scale with risk and rewards.

        1. *race, Nico

        2. Both Bahrain and Silverstone are not tracks on which it’s easy to overtake. Not impossible, but nowhere near “easy”. In Bahrain there’s not many -if any- places for overtake other than start-finish line with DRS.

      3. He won’t be able to fight for the win if his gearbox packs up in the race, either

  4. I tell you, Raikkonen will outqualify Vettel. It is highly possible there is going to be a gap between them in the race.

    1. agreed, Vettel has not looked at his best this weekend. Raikkonen seems to have got the better of Vettel

    2. Kimi fans are like dinosaurs… not long left now…

      1. Kimi anti-fans are not different either. To make such a comment, you don’t need to be Kimi fan. I have the ability to objectively analyze something like that. I could even be a Vettel fan…

      2. Like I said…

    3. Silverstone and Hungaroring are 2 tracks where Vettel might be slower than his teammate. Raikkonen is very lucky and has a chance to prove he can do good things in these 2 races. After that there are Spa and Monza, and there too Vettel either wins or finishes off-podium.

    4. I don’t think so, Kimi always manages to screw-up qualifying in some way.

      I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

      1. Even if he qualifies behind Vettel, he might be faster in the race. I’m not sure where Ferrari will qualify much less their race pace anyway. But Vettel doesn’t look really that happy.

  5. but anyway hopefully Mercedes can resolve Nico’s gearbox issues, and he and Lewis can scrap it out for Pole, but Rosberg has very good this week despite his issues. So money on him for quali.

  6. Toro Rosso … wow.

    1. That car is probably better than Williams. And tbh Williams is not any slower than Ferrari.

  7. SKY should stop speculating silliness. I cannot stand listening to them go on and on about things, talking like fans want what they want.

  8. I dunno about Bottas. Lovely guy but is he really that special on track?

    1. I’m pretty sure Hulkenberg is considerably faster.

Comments are closed.