Rosberg still fastest in final practice

F1 Grand Prix, GP Germany, Hockenheimring

Nico Rosberg was fastest once again the third and final practice session ahead of qualifying for the German Grand Prix. The Mercedes home driver however saw his advantage reduced considerably, with both Hamilton and Ricciardo within a tenth of his best lap time.

Behind the fastest three, Ferrari slotted into 4th and 5th, with Raikkonen getting the upper hand on Vettel.

Max Verstappen was 6th fastest in the second Red Bull, followed by the Williams drivers, Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg.

Hamilton looked in much better shape though than on Friday, with few errors throughout, and topping Rosberg for the first time this weekend on the super softs. His failure to improve on the second attempts though made him drop to second again, as Rosberg indeed managed to find a small improvement on his second set of super softs.

An unsafe release of Hamilton just ahead of Romain Grosjean meanwhile did end up in a penalty, even though it turned out to be a €10000 fine for the team, with no penalty for the driver. Driver penalties have been handed for this before though, while at Singapore 2015, Williams was fined just €2000 for the same infringement.

Romain Grosjean on the other hand encountered a gearbox issue after just 4 laps in the session, requiring a new gearbox for qualifying and the race and hence resulting in a 5-place grid penalty for him.