An unlikely grid reversal has happened in a rained-out FP3 at Hockenheim, seeing the times topped by Leclerc, Ericsson and Sirotkin. Meanwhile fitness concerns surround non-running Hamilton despite strong performance yesterday.
The last time we saw significant rain during an F1 Saturday was Monza last year, where Lance Stroll pulled an extraordinary lap out of his Williams to take fourth on the grid. If his teammate Sergey Sirotkin can maintain the pace he’s shown this morning then we could see some long-sought-after results for the struggling British team.However, it’s fairly unlikely; Sirotkin’s time came at the end of a heavily disrupted session where most drivers did nothing but sit in their garages. An initial time set by Nico Hulkenberg, the only driver to put in a timed lap during the first 40 minutes of the session, held for most of the practice while rain lashed down on the track.
The skies cleared with minutes to go, meaning anyone intrepid enough – or with very little to lose – could head out but standing water remained on the racing line in multiple places.
Lewis Hamilton eventually went out in the final three minutes of the session, amidst rumours he is unwell and reports that he seems to be walking with difficulty but didn’t set a time. For most cars that did, you’d have to assume are not representative unless qualifying is during another downpour, with the lead time falling 30 seconds against FP2.
Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’34.577 | 8 | |
2 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’35.000 | 0.423 | 9 |
3 | 35 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’35.334 | 0.757 | 9 |
4 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’35.573 | 0.996 | 5 |
5 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’35.659 | 1.082 | 6 |
6 | 28 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’36.151 | 1.574 | 6 |
7 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’36.873 | 2.296 | 4 |
8 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’37.755 | 3.178 | 4 |
9 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’38.393 | 3.816 | 7 |
10 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 2 | ||
11 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 2 | ||
12 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1 | ||
13 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1 | ||
14 | 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 2 | ||
15 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1 | ||
16 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 2 | ||
17 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 2 | ||
18 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 2 | ||
19 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1 | ||
20 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 2 |
Third practice visual gaps
Charles Leclerc – 1’34.577
+0.423 Marcus Ericsson – 1’35.000
+0.757 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’35.334
+0.996 Sebastian Vettel – 1’35.573
+1.082 Pierre Gasly – 1’35.659
+1.574 Brendon Hartley – 1’36.151
+2.296 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’36.873
+3.178 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’37.755
+3.816 Lance Stroll – 1’38.393
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | Total laps | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’13.714 | 1’13.085 | 53 | ||
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’13.529 | 1’13.111 | 70 | ||
3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’13.903 | 1’13.190 | 71 | ||
4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’13.796 | 1’13.310 | 1’35.573 | +22.263 | 74 |
5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’14.267 | 1’13.427 | 1’37.755 | +24.328 | 69 |
6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’13.525 | 1’14.682 | 59 | ||
7 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’14.691 | 1’13.973 | 65 | ||
8 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’14.853 | 1’14.189 | 66 | ||
9 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’15.097 | 1’14.374 | 1’34.577 | +20.203 | 74 |
10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’15.282 | 1’14.496 | 1’36.873 | +22.377 | 67 |
11 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’14.508 | 41 | |||
12 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’15.415 | 1’14.552 | 68 | ||
13 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’15.769 | 1’14.592 | 55 | ||
14 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’14.783 | 1’35.000 | +20.217 | 47 | |
15 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’16.071 | 1’14.793 | 1’35.659 | +20.866 | 82 |
16 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’15.864 | 1’14.830 | 1’36.151 | +21.321 | 87 |
17 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’15.544 | 1’14.836 | 52 | ||
18 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’15.629 | 1’15.269 | 1’38.393 | +23.124 | 75 |
19 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’15.876 | 1’15.408 | 1’35.334 | +19.926 | 84 |
20 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’16.149 | 1’15.454 | 50 | ||
21 | Nicholas Latifi | Force India-Mercedes | 1’16.023 | 27 | |||
22 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’16.136 | 23 |
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MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
21st July 2018, 12:28
It is definately time to change up the rules, otherwise this mindbogglingly boring sauber domination is never going end.
Jere (@jerejj)
21st July 2018, 12:46
@mrboerns LOL.
Hugh (@hugh11)
21st July 2018, 12:48
Are the costs really that much that pirelli can manufacture 13 dry tyres but only 7 wets? Really boring that whenever it rains in FP3, there’s no action. And like today, when it could rain in quali, if they had the tyres, it would actually be beneficial to do wet running to help understand how the tyres are working and setups etc. Only really need 1 more wet and 1 more inter set, that are to be reserved for practice sessions, and then we may actually get cars doing more than 2 laps.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
21st July 2018, 12:50
@hugh11 also they could just have one big batch of rain tires and bring them everywhere as they won’t exactly be used up under normal circumstances. On the other hand they are probably too rubbish for non-inters conditions anyways, so….
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
21st July 2018, 12:52
@hugh11 They often say they don’t run because of the wet tyre limits but even when they had a lot more inter/wet tyres available they never used to do much (If any) running in a very wet practice session so I think you could give them another 10 sets of each & nothing would change.
I think it was FP2 at Spa in 2005 where nobody completed a lap & later in the year at Suzuka where only 5-6 cars set a time & they had a lot more sets of wets back then.
Hugh (@hugh11)
21st July 2018, 13:10
@stefmeister That could be explained by the fact it didn’t rain in quali or the race though, and I’d assume they knew that it wouldn’t so there was no need to do any wet running in practice, especially in FP2 on the Friday. Whereas here it could be beneficial as there’s a pretty high chance of it raining. Same thing as Monza last year too.
I dunno, I like @mrboerns idea of just bringing the tyres they didn’t use at previous races along, which makes lots of sense as it won’t add any extra cost and gives them more tyres to use.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
21st July 2018, 13:57
@hugh11
For the 2 examples I listed rain was forecast for quali or the race.
For Spa it was Wet for FP2 with rain forecast for the race on Sunday & still only a handful of cars went out during the wet FP2 with none completing a lap. For Japan later in the year it was wet for the Saturday morning practice sessions & was forecast to still be wet for qualifying later that day.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
21st July 2018, 16:53
The number of wet tyres Pirelli brings is predicated by the amount their experience says teams will use. No point bringing a tyre if it has no chance of being put on a car due to team habits.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
21st July 2018, 13:41
What kind of rubbish sport do we all follow where they actively try and dry a wet track despite a wet track being the best thing the sport brings
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
21st July 2018, 16:54
The sort where teams try anything to improve their performance and get the best result they can.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
21st July 2018, 20:25
It’s 20 sec slower than dry track, now 30 like the article says; still a lot, mind you.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
21st July 2018, 20:26
I meant not 30*