Lewis Hamilton topped the times in the final practice session of the weekend, just nine hundredths of a second ahead of Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team-mate Nico Rosberg,
It was a damp FP3 session that was delayed by a huge shunt for Marcus Ericsson with just twenty minutes of the session remaining, just when teams were getting ready to complete their qualifying simulations. The Red flag stayed out for fifteen minutes due to the amount of damage to the barrier, which left drivers with just five minutes to get some quick laps on the board.
The Brit set a superb time of 1:30.904 to take the top spot on the soft tyre compound, the fastest time seen so far this weekend, ahead of Rosberg who was playing catch up after sitting out the whole of FP2 with a water leak, yesterday afternoon.
Daniel Ricciardo took third place, half a second down on the Mercedes, but Red Bull Racing can be pleased to finish ahead of both Scuderia Ferrari drivers in this session. Team-mate Max Verstappen took fourth place, and had been ahead of team-mate Ricciardo prior to the red flag, but finished FP3 a tenth down on the Australian.
Sebastian Vettel was fifth, but the red flag incident hindered Ferrari’s session slightly as they were yet to test out the soft tyre. With the five minutes remaining when the session resumed, the German was seen gesticulating wildly, before reporting over team radio that the gearbox, which was new today, had failed. If that is indeed the case, then a further five place grid penalty is on the cards for Vettel.
Valtteri Bottas finished the session in sixth for Williams Martini Racing, in what was a relatively quiet session for the Oxfordshire based squad. The Finn was ahead of Fernando Alonso in the first of the McLaren-Honda F1 team cars, with Nico Hulkenberg the first Sahara Force India in eighth.
Kimi Raikkonen was in ninth, almost two seconds down on the lead Mercedes time, to complete a poor session for the Ferrari squad, with Carlos Sainz Jr rounding out the top ten in the Scuderia Toro Rosso.
Esteban Gutierrez again finished the session ahead of Haas F1 team-mate Romain Grosjean, the Mexican taking an excellent eleventh spot for the American team, with Jenson Button down in twelfth, looking to break his Britsh Grand Prix podium duck this weekend – if the conditions continue as they are doing, then it could be a possibility!
Grosjean took thirteenth place, ahead of Sergio Perez in the second Force India, the Mexican looking slightly off the pace of team-mate Hulkenberg this weekend.
William’s Martini Racing’s Felipe Massa was way down in fifteenth spot, ahead of Daniil Kvyat in the second Toro Rosso, with Sauber F1 Team‘s Felipe Nasr finishing in seventeenth place. The Brazilian had a bit of a moment when he lost the rear of his car under braking coming into Vale and span the C35, but managed to continue on, unlike team-mate Ericsson who found the tyre wall.
Jolyon Palmer was eighteenth, three tenths ahead of Renault Sport F1 team-mate Kevin Magnussen, with Rio Haryanto next up for the Manor Racing Team, just one tenth ahead of Ericsson whose session finished early due to a crash during the second half of FP3.
Ericsson ended his session in the barrier following a high speed crash coming out of Stowe. The Swede got his left rear tyre on the kerb, which sent the Sauber spinning across the track and into the tyre wall. Ericsson got out of the car unhurt, but his car sustained a huge amount of damage, with all four corners of the C35 destroyed, leaving Sauber with plenty of work to get the car ready for qualifying later today.
Pascal Wehrlein brought up the rear of the field in twenty-second place, bringing the German back down to earth after such a successful time in Austria last time out.
It was a disrupted session, that started off relatively quiet due to the damp track, but hotted up at the end, following a late red flag. Heading into qualifying, Mercedes once again look extremely strong, with Red Bull seemingly best of the rest, ahead of Ferrari who look set to be troubled by technical woes once more.
2016 BRITISH GRAND PRIX – FP3 REULTS
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
POS
NO.
DRIVER
NAT
TEAM
TIME
LAPS
1
44
Lewis Hamilton
ENG
Mercedes
1:30.904
10
2
6
Nico Rosberg
GER
Mercedes
1:30.967
18
3
3
Daniel Ricciardo
AUS
Red Bull Racing
1:31.488
6
4
33
Max Verstappen
NED
Red Bull Racing
1:31.488
7
5
5
Sebastian Vettel
GER
Ferrari
1:32.049
10
6
77
Valtteri Bottas
FIN
Williams
1:32.736
15
7
14
Fernando Alonso
SPA
McLaren
1:32.754
11
8
27
Nico Hulkenberg
GER
Force India
1:32.798
14
9
7
Kimi Räikkönen
FIN
Ferrari
1:32.833
13
10
55
Carlos Sainz
SPA
Toro Rosso
1:32.889
10
11
21
Esteban Gutierrez
MEX
Haas
1:32.895
12
12
22
Jenson Button
ENG
McLaren
1:33.042
11
13
8
Romain Grosjean
FRA
Haas
1:33.344
13
14
11
Sergio Perez
MEX
Toro Rosso
1:33.361
13
15
19
Felipe Massa
BRA
Williams
1:33.440
14
16
26
Daniil Kvyat
RUS
Toro Rosso
1:33.538
10
17
12
Felipe Nasr
BRA
Sauber
1:33.710
10
18
30
Jolyon Palmer
ENG
Renault
1:33.769
13
19
20
Kevin Magnussen
DEN
Renault
1:34.049
10
20
88
Rio Haryanto
IND
Manor
1:34.471
14
21
9
Marcus Ericsson
SWE
Sauber
1:34.551
7
22
94
Pascal Wehrlein
GER
Manor
1:34.658
11