Germany – Free Practice 3: Rosberg (just) in front, Red Bull interferes with Ferrari

In front of a majority of fans on his side, Nico Rosberg continued to gain confidence this Saturday morning in Hockenheim. With a time of 1:15.738 achieved shortly after the halfway point of the session, on his first set of super-soft tires, the German maintained his supremacy in Free Practice.

That being said, the gap is slim with Lewis Hamilton. The now leader of the drivers’ championship has reduced the margin compared to yesterday, with a gap of 0.057 seconds. Better still, the two drivers are now heading towards a fierce battle down to the thousandth of a second, with pole position at stake!

Moreover, Lewis Hamilton had set the initial benchmark times at 1:16.015 and then 1:15.795, before being beaten a few minutes later by the driver sporting the number 6.

The fight for the clock, however, did not last much longer, as both drivers dedicated the end of their session to an uneventful preparation for the afternoon’s qualifying.

The only (significant) problem to highlight for the Greys was with Lewis Hamilton, who was put under investigation by the stewards for an overly presumptuous pit exit, much to the dismay of Romain Grosjean, who was exiting at the same time.

📻 @RGrosjean

“That was interesting from Mercedes…”#GermanGP 🇩🇪 #FP3 #F1 pic.twitter.com/H4q6PHZxvh

— Formula 1 (@F1) 30 juillet 2016

Afterwards, Lewis Hamilton was “simply” reprimanded, while his team received a $10,000 penalty. However, the Englishman will need to steer clear of any misconduct in the Qualifying sessions to avoid receiving a grid penalty this time.

UPDATE: Team fined for unsafe release. No penalty for @LewisHamilton

#F1istZurueck #GermanGP #F1 #Hockenheim pic.twitter.com/LAe2590MHw

— MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) 30 juillet 2016

Just behind, we note the pleasant surprise of Daniel Ricciardo, in third place, after a lap time set at the very end of the session. The Australian driver remained conservative for a long time, only bringing out the ultimate tire performance in the final moments. He even allowed himself the luxury of securing the reference time in the second sector to best establish his position as “best of the rest.” In any case, this performance comes at just the right time for the upcoming battle against Ferrari.

Indeed, Kimi Räikkönen is not far behind with a gap of 0.065 seconds on Ricciardo. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel had to cut his session short due to an abrupt run over a curb, damaging the floor of his car and part of his front wing.

Placed in the top two positions at the start of the session, the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa also achieved two good respective lap times, which ultimately put them in seventh and eighth position.

Beautiful improvements after a more complicated Friday for the Grove team.

Ninth, Fernando Alonso also spent a long time on soft tires before finally switching to the fastest rubber. The McLaren driver will no doubt be a candidate for Q3 this German afternoon. Let’s not forget another local of the event, Nico Hülkenberg, 10th this morning after setting his time on his first run with super-softs. Carlos Sainz (11th), Sergio Pérez (12th), and Jenson Button (18th) will also be credible candidates for the last third of the session.

A situation that Romain Grosjean certainly cannot claim, as he has experienced various problems. After the mishap encountered in the pits with Hamilton, the Frenchman could only complete four laps due to a gearbox problem, which notably cost him an off-track excursion at turn 3.

.@RGrosjean slides off onto the grass…

📻 “Guys, you sure the aero is correct?”#GermanGP 🇩🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/2I307quWHl

— Formula 1 (@F1) 30 juillet 2016

Here is the complete ranking of this third session: