Hamilton half a second clear of Rosberg as German delayed by gearbox oil leak; Toro Rosso again star to prove third-fastest team behind Mercedes and Ferrari; McLaren sill among backmarkers
Wednesday 8 July 2015 11:46, UK
Lewis Hamilton overcame his troubles of Friday to deny Nico Rosberg a practice hat-trick and set himself up for a shot at British Grand Prix pole position.
The world champion had appeared out-of-sorts on the opening day of his home race as he trailed in the in-form Rosberg’s wake around the sweeping turns of Silverstone. But after working on his set-up with his engineers ahead of P3, Hamilton successfully turned the tables on Saturday morning and set a storming pace at the front to lead the session by half a second.
Hamilton had already led the way from the sister Mercedes by three-tenths on the hard tyres but Rosberg was then delayed ahead of the later qualifying simulations on the medium tyre after his W06 developed a gearbox oil leak. The German did eventually get out on track for a quick lap, but wound up 0.552s adrift of his team-mate's 1:32.917 time.
Rosberg had already suffered a gearbox change on Friday morning after a hydraulics leak in the unit, although the P1 delays didn’t stop him from topping the timesheet.
But while Mercedes may not be able to take reliability for granted this weekend, the W06 appears to be in a league of its own round the Northamptonshire track with their P3 advantage over would-be challengers Ferrari seven tenths of a second.
For the third successive session, the under-pressure Kimi Raikkonen was the lead Ferrari in third ahead of Sebastian Vettel by a couple of tenths, although particular fascination was developing behind as the exciting rookie pairing of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz showed Toro Rosso could challenge for the third-quickest team this weekend.
Having already run strongly on Friday, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz are threatening to spring a real surprise in qualifying in the impressive STR10 after they outpaced both Williams cars and those from senior team Red Bull in P3.
Williams pair Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas trailed fifth-placed Verstappen by over three tenths of a second, while the gap to the lead Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat in ninth was 0.4s. Daniel Ricciardo, meanwhile, slipped to 12th at the end of the medium tyre runs.
But while the Red Bull junior team are upwardly-mobile, the team which have won the British GP 14 times, McLaren, continue to toil towards the back of the field. After admitting on Friday night that they may not even clear Q1 in qualifying, Fernando Alonso outpaced only the Manor Marussia cars, while Jenson Button fared slightly better in 16th.
With five cars to drop out in the first stage of qualifying, fallen giants McLaren-Honda appear in a straight fight with cash-strapped Sauber to avoid the embarrassment of an early qualy exit on home soil.
Times:
1. L Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:32.917
2. N Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:33.469
3. K Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:33.692
4. S Vettel, Ferrari, 1:33.918
5. M Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1:34.147
6. C Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:34.282
7. F Massa, Williams, 1:34.501
8. V Bottas, Williams, 1:34.538
9. D Kvyat, Red Bull, 1:34.545
10. P Maldonado, Lotus, 1:34.708
11. N Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:34.886
12. D Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:34.896
13. S Perez, Force India, 1:35.121
14. R Grosjean, Lotus, 1:35.246
15. F Nasr, Sauber, 1:35.587
16. J Button, McLaren, 1:35.695
17. M Ericsson, Sauber, 1:35.919
18. F Alonso, McLaren, 1:36.101
19. W Stevens, Manor, 1:37.989
20. R Merhi, Manor, 1:38.285
