Mercedes stays ahead, Hamilton tops FP3

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Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas kept Mercedes firmly in front in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the 70th Anniversary race in Silverstone. Lando Norris was the closest challenger with a fastest lap on medium tyres.

Sebastian Vettel kicked off third practice as he headed out first on a set of hard compound tyres. On the back of reliability woes on Friday, the Ferrari driver and his team were eager to find out if everything got sorted. Ferrari also reported they changed Leclerc's PU due to the problems encountered on Vettel's car.

It seemed to be the case for Vettel, but when Kvyat did his installation lap moments later, he reported that his steering wheel was not pointing straight, giving his mechanics a task to complete.

McLaren, on the other hand, sent their drivers out on different tyres on their first outings. Norris on soft, Sainz on mediums. The latter's car sported lots of flow-vis paint on the rear wing to help the team gather more information about its aerodynamic package as they compare the efficiency of the two rear wing specifications available.

After about 20 minutes, the action heated up with several drivers fitting new soft tyres to try to qualifying runs. Bottas turned out fastest after the runs of both Mercedes, but Hamilton later returned the favour and moved up in front, while Verstappen was 2 tenths behind.

Norris later went fastest on mediums, and interestingly was nearly half a second faster than Sainz who was on fresh softs.

It was soon rectified again by even faster laps from the Mercedes on softer tyres, but the difference between the McLarens was surely telling, and promising for strategies during qualifying and the race on Sunday.

Results

Pos.No.DriverCarTimeGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:26.621-14
277Valtteri BottasMercedes1:26.784+0.163s14
34Lando NorrisMcLaren Renault1:27.202+0.581s19
427Nico HulkenbergRacing Point Bwt Mercedes1:27.256+0.635s15
518Lance StrollRacing Point Bwt Mercedes1:27.263+0.642s14
616Charles LeclercFerrari1:27.328+0.707s17
733Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing Honda1:27.455+0.834s12
823Alexander AlbonRed Bull Racing Honda1:27.474+0.853s14
931Esteban OconRenault1:27.496+0.875s14
1055Carlos SainzMcLaren Renault1:27.627+1.006s21
1110Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri Honda1:27.659+1.038s14
1226Daniil KvyatAlphaTauri Honda1:27.754+1.133s17
135Sebastian VettelFerrari1:27.811+1.190s19
143Daniel RicciardoRenault1:27.815+1.194s11
158Romain GrosjeanHaas Ferrari1:28.076+1.455s14
166Nicholas LatifiWilliams Mercedes1:28.125+1.504s13
1763George RussellWilliams Mercedes1:28.349+1.728s16
1899Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo Racing Ferrari1:28.468+1.847s12
197Kimi RäikkönenAlfa Romeo Racing Ferrari1:28.538+1.917s11
2020Kevin MagnussenHaas Ferrari1:28.763+2.142s15