Hamilton beats Magnussen to keep Mercedes on top

Renault driver Magnussen had established himself at the top of the leaderboard early in the fourth hour with a 1m23.933s, after becoming the first man of the day to equip supersoft tyres.

Switching from mediums to softs, Hamilton shortly slotted behind the Dane in second with a time just 0.034s shy – losing time in the final part of the lap after setting two overall best sectors.

The world champion returned to the track with half an hour remaining to wrest the top spot, bettering Magnussen’s benchmark by 0.311s.

Nico Rosberg takes over the Mercedes in the afternoon, as Mercedes continues its policy of making its two drivers share driving duties each day.

Sebastian Vettel was third fastest for Ferrari, having spent a large part of the session on top using medium tyres before Hamilton and Magnussen’s late surges.

Valtteri Bottas (Williams) and Jenson Button (McLaren) completed the top five, using medium and soft tyres respecitively.

Once again, it was Mercedes who logged the most laps of the morning, with Hamilton completing 72 – although Ferrari ended close behind on 63, having appeared to have solved the reliability gremlins that hobbled the team on Tuesday.

Two of the Italian marque's customers, on the other hand, spent almost the entire morning stuck in the garage.

After completing a sole installation lap, Esteban Gutierrez’s Haas was diagnosed with turbo failure, which prevented the Mexican from returning to the track – although the American team hopes to be back on track in the afternoon.

Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, meanwhile, only set a flying lap in the session's dying stages, owing to an electronics problem that ruled him out of action for two hours.

Pos	Driver	Team	Times	Laps
1	L. Hamilton	Mercedes	1:23.622	73
2	K. Magnussen	Renault	1:23.933	56
3	S. Vettel	Ferrari	1:24.611	63
4	V. Bottas	Williams	1:25.151	57
5	J. Button	McLaren	1:25.183	45
6	D. Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:25.235	42
7	C. Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:25.300	59
8	S. Pérez	Force India	1:26.188	58
9	P. Wehrlein	Manor	1:27.064	43
10	M. Ericsson	Sauber	1:30.309	7
11	E. Gutiérrez	Haas		1