Max Verstappen bounced back from Friday’s low-key to set a sparkling pace and lead Red Bull 1-2 in final practice at Silverstone.
The championship leader clocked 1 million 27.901 seconds, four tenths of a second ahead of teammate Sergio Perez, with Ferrari Charles Leclerc in third, a few hundred after the expected rain stopped.
As it happens: Follow all the action from the final practice of the British Grand Prix
Mercedes’ upgrade appears to have brought them closer to the top two teams, with George Russell edging out teammate Lewis Hamilton, with the top five separated by six tenths of a second to set up an interesting playoff.
Carlo Sainz was not happy with the level of rebound in the high-speed corners, with the Spaniard telling Ferrari it was no better than yesterday.
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1 the above Verstappen VER Red Bull Racing |
1: 27.901 |
|
2 sergio Perez for every Red Bull Racing |
+ 0.410 sec |
|
3 Charles Leclerc LEC Ferrari |
+ 0.447 seconds |
|
4 George contact Russians mercedes |
+ 0.525 seconds |
|
5 Louis Hamilton pork meat mercedes |
+ 0.587 seconds |
The Ferrari driver, who finished second in Canada, finished sixth, and McLaren’s Lando Norris again came seventh, albeit 1.2 seconds off the lead.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was narrowly behind in eighth as Haas made big gains overnight as Mick Schumacher finished ninth. Fernando Alonso completed the top ten, which included seven different teams.
Read more: 5 things we learned from Friday’s training at the British Grand Prix
Esteban Ocon was trailing 11th, and the significantly updated Alpine’s performance was even more impressive after the team found some solutions overnight.
Sebastian Vettel took Aston Martin’s lead in 12th, four places, three-tenths behind his teammate Lance Stroll, while Zhou Guanyu finished 13th.
FP3 Highlights: British Grand Prix
Williams are reasonably pleased with the performance of their vastly upgraded car, which only Alex Albon runs – with the Thai driver in 14th place.
AlphaTauri continues to struggle, as expected, in the fast sweeping turns of Silverstone, with Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda 17 and 19, with Daniel Ricciardo in between and Nicholas Latifi supporting the schedules at old Williams.
Qualifiers take place at 1500 local time, with forecasts indicating the possibility of rain.
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