FP3: Rosberg claims practice hat-trick
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton fought over P1 in Saturday’s final practice for the German GP while Red Bull and Ferrari battled over third.
As the sun shone down on the Hockenheimring, Rosberg and Hamilton traded blows at the top of the timesheets with both drivers also making mistakes.
Hamilton led the early running with a 1:15.795 while Rosberg ran wide at Turn 2 after locking up.
The German later came back with a 1:15.738 and this time it was Hamilton who made a mistake as he ran very wide at Turn 1.
Rosberg finished final practiced 0.057s ahead of his team-mate.
Behind the Mercedes pairing, Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel tussled over third place as they too swapped position several times.
However, when it all played out after the traditional qualifying simulations late in the session, it was Daniel Ricciardo who was third.
His 1:15.837 put him 0.099s short of Rosberg’s P1 time.
Kimi Raikkonen finished the session in fourth place ahead of Vettel and Verstappen, the trio separated by 0.3s.
Valtteri Bottas was seventh ahead of Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg.
Romain Grosjean had an early end to his practice as he got it wrong at Turn 3 and spun off the track. He reported a problem with the gearbox, which was stuck in fourth, and crawled back to the pits.
The Haas driver covered just four laps with the team tweeting: “Team has determined a gearbox change is in order.”
Times
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’15.738 16 laps
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’15.795 +0.057 19 laps
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1’15.837 +0.099 13 laps
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’15.902 +0.164 16 laps
5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’16.104 +0.366 20 laps
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1’16.182 +0.444 23 laps
7 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1’16.400 +0.662 28 laps
8 Felipe Massa Williams 1’16.630 +0.892 26 laps
9 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1’16.916 +1.178 11 laps
10 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1’16.972 +1.234 16 laps
11 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso 1’17.028 +1.290 20 laps
12 Sergio Perez Force India 1’17.066 +1.328 10 laps
13 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1’17.160 +1.422 17 laps
14 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1’17.227 +1.489 19 laps
15 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1’17.351 +1.613 9 laps
16 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1’17.473 +1.735 23 laps
17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1’17.685 +1.947 19 laps
18 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1’18.057 +2.319 24 laps
19 Jenson Button McLaren 1’18.093 +2.355 6 laps
20 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1’18.270 +2.532 24 laps
21 Rio Haryanto Manor 1’18.272 +2.534 18 laps
22 Romain Grosjean Haas 1’25.160 +9.422 4 laps