Hamilton completes clean sweep of practice after Ericsson shunt

2016 British Grand Prix third practice

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Lewis Hamilton completed a clean sweep of practice sessions at Silverstone as he headed a disrupted final hour of running on a damp circuit.

The drivers lost around a quarter of an hour of running at the end of the session after Marcus Ericsson crashed heavily at Stowe. The Sauber driver lost control of his car on the exit kerb and made heavy contact with the barrier on the inside of the circuit.

The session was restarted with five minutes remaining which proved just enough time for drivers to do qualifying simulations on the soft tyres. The Mercedes drivers swapped fastest sector times all around the lap, Hamilton prevailing by just six-hundredths of a second.

It was just as close between the two Red Bulls behind them. Daniel Ricciardo was half a second off Hamilton’s pace and Max Verstappen, who grappled spectacularly with his car at the exit of Club, was only slightly slower.

Sebastian Vettel set the fifth-fastest time but he clapped his hands in frustration as he crossed the finishing line. “I think we failed a gearbox again,” he warned his team. Vettel has already had two five-place grid penalties for gearbox changes this year.

The second half of the top ten was very close – just 0.159s covered Valtteri Bottas in sixth to Esteban Gutierrez in eleventh. Cars from four different teams separated them: Fernando Alonso’s McLaren, Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India, Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari and Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Toro Rosso.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’30.90410
26Nico RosbergMercedes1’30.9670.06318
33Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’31.4880.5846
433Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’31.5610.6577
55Sebastian VettelFerrari1’32.0491.14510
677Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’32.7361.83215
714Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’32.7541.85011
827Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’32.7981.89414
97Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’32.8331.92913
1055Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Ferrari1’32.8891.98510
1121Esteban GutierrezHaas-Ferrari1’32.8951.99112
1222Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’33.0422.13811
138Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’33.3442.44013
1411Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’33.3612.45713
1519Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’33.4402.53614
1626Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Ferrari1’33.5382.63410
1712Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’33.7102.80610
1830Jolyon PalmerRenault1’33.7692.86513
1920Kevin MagnussenRenault1’34.0493.14510
2088Rio HaryantoManor-Mercedes1’34.4713.56714
219Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’34.5513.6477
2294Pascal WehrleinManor-Mercedes1’34.6583.75411

Third practice visual gaps

Lewis Hamilton – 1’30.904

+0.063 Nico Rosberg – 1’30.967

+0.584 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’31.488

+0.657 Max Verstappen – 1’31.561

+1.145 Sebastian Vettel – 1’32.049

+1.832 Valtteri Bottas – 1’32.736

+1.850 Fernando Alonso – 1’32.754

+1.894 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’32.798

+1.929 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’32.833

+1.985 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’32.889

+1.991 Esteban Gutierrez – 1’32.895

+2.138 Jenson Button – 1’33.042

+2.440 Romain Grosjean – 1’33.344

+2.457 Sergio Perez – 1’33.361

+2.536 Felipe Massa – 1’33.440

+2.634 Daniil Kvyat – 1’33.538

+2.806 Felipe Nasr – 1’33.710

+2.865 Jolyon Palmer – 1’33.769

+3.145 Kevin Magnussen – 1’34.049

+3.567 Rio Haryanto – 1’34.471

+3.647 Marcus Ericsson – 1’34.551

+3.754 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’34.658

Combined times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’31.6541’31.6601’30.904-0.7575
2Nico RosbergMercedes1’31.6871’30.967-0.7251
3Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’32.7731’32.0511’31.488-0.56366
4Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’33.2021’32.2861’31.561-0.72564
5Sebastian VettelFerrari1’32.5011’32.5701’32.049-0.45268
6Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’32.4921’34.3211’32.798+0.30678
7Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’33.0391’32.7361’32.833+0.09776
8Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’34.2631’33.4931’32.736-0.75789
9Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’33.5271’33.0401’32.754-0.28663
10Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Ferrari1’33.4461’33.8401’32.889-0.55754
11Esteban GutierrezHaas-Ferrari1’34.0001’32.895-1.10542
12Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’34.1321’33.7631’33.042-0.72154
13Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’33.2351’34.3561’33.361+0.12677
14Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’34.5471’33.6141’33.344-0.2767
15Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’34.4561’33.8011’33.440-0.36176
16Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Ferrari1’33.7381’34.1391’33.538-0.264
17Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’34.8051’34.1541’33.710-0.44454
18Jolyon PalmerRenault1’34.7871’34.6101’33.769-0.84181
19Kevin MagnussenRenault1’34.9591’34.049-0.9149
20Rio HaryantoManor-Mercedes1’36.6471’35.8411’34.471-1.3777
21Pascal WehrleinManor-Mercedes1’36.1361’34.5491’34.658+0.10973
22Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’36.0031’34.7221’34.551-0.17160
23Charles LeclercHaas-Ferrari1’35.86925
24Esteban OconRenault1’35.98030

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...

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9 comments on “Hamilton completes clean sweep of practice after Ericsson shunt”

  1. This Ferrari is such a pile of junk. Vettel has been so unfortunate this year. Ferrari need to sort their reliability out!

  2. Probably a strong sign of RBR overtaking Ferrari on pure speed. It could only be tracks like Monza or maybe even Spa where Ferrari might have the advantage due to its engine.

  3. Sometimes people forget, or never knew, that aside from 1975-1979 and 2000-2004, Ferrari was never a dominant car, and for much (although not all) of the other years the Ferrari was not particularly competitive.

      1. Could be said for all of the top teams, no? Although many haven’t had the extended dominance runs.

        1. Except Ferrari, their dominance was more in the ability to copy other teams Solutions witch where suppose to be secret for a full year or ban them, also they could run ilegal solutions whitout reprocussions, tc and and flexibel underfloor. To name A few.

    1. Ferrari have actualy never been at building A competetive package based on only on car and driver. Its The main reason they are not The top team now. Their main competetive power is political and monetary from the deal they have with Bernie.

  4. Great to see Nico once again come ‘out of the box’ with a newly re-assembled car, and be within a hair of the top time in final practice.

  5. Darn, missed F1fanatic predictions deadline :D

    gonna state it here 1:29 Hamilton…

    Race results, Ham, Ros, Ves, Rai, Vet…

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