Rebounding from a cautious Friday, Max Verstappen set a scintillating pace and led a Red Bull 1-2 in the final practice session at Silverstone.
The championship leader clocked 1m27.901s, an impressive four-tenths of a second clear of team-mate Sergio Perez, while Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari finished third, a few hundredths further back as the predicted rain failed to materialize.
HOW IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from the final practice session for the British Grand Prix
The upgrade from Mercedes seems to have brought them closer to the top two teams, George Russell edged out team-mate Lewis Hamilton, the top five separated by six tenths to set up an intriguing qualifying session.
Carlo Sainz was unhappy with the swaying in the high-speed corners, the Spaniard telling his Ferrari team it was no better than yesterday.
| 1 Max Verstappen VER Red Bull race |
1:27.901 |
| 2 Sergio Perez PER Red Bull race |
+0.410s |
| 3 Karl Leclerc LEC Ferrari |
+0.447s |
| 4 George russell RUS Mercedes |
+0.525s |
| 5 Lewis Hamilton HAM Mercedes |
+0.587s |
The Ferrari driver, who was in Canada the penultimate time out, was sixth while McLaren’s Lando Norris again impressed in seventh, albeit 1.2 seconds back.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was just a fraction behind in eighth, while Haas made big overnight gains while Mick Schumacher was a solid ninth. Fernando Alonso completed the top 10, which was made up of seven different teams.
READ MORE: 5 things we learned from Friday practice at the British Grand Prix
Esteban Ocon was just behind in 11th, the heavily modernized Alpine faring more impressively after the team found some solutions overnight.
Sebastian Vettel was the leading Aston Martin in 12th, four places and three tenths ahead of teammate Lance Stroll, while Zhou Guanyu was 13th.
FP3 Highlights: British Grand Prix
Williams is reasonably pleased with the performance of their vastly improved car, driven only by Alex Albon – with the Thai driver in 14th place.
AlphaTauri continues to struggle in the fast corners of Silverstone, as expected, with Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda in 17th and 19th respectively, with Daniel Ricciardo in between and Nicholas Latifi supporting the timesheets in the old-spec Williams.
Qualifying takes place at 15:00 local time, with forecasts indicating rain is a possibility.