Bottas outpaces Hamilton in final practice for F1 British GP
Valtteri Bottas outpaced Formula 1 teammate Lewis Hamilton in final practice for the British Grand Prix as Mercedes returned to the top of the timesheets.
Much lower temperatures seen on Saturday morning at Silverstone appeared to aid Mercedes’ performance, as Bottas got the better of six-time British Grand Prix winner Hamilton heading into qualifying.
Bottas set a time 0.138s quicker than Hamilton, although the reigning world champion’s new Soft tyre run was hampered after suffering a big wobble through Becketts when he caught a gust of wind.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will be encouraged after getting within three-tenths of the Mercedes duo in third, while Lance Stroll popped his Racing Point into P4 with a time that was seven-tenths adrift.
Carlos Sainz was fifth, ahead of 2021 Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, who split the McLaren duo with a surprising turn of pace in his SF1000 that had been tipped to struggle for competitiveness this weekend.
Behind Norris came Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo in eighth, while the returning Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10 for Racing Point and AlphaTauri.
It proved to be a solid session for AlphaTauri as Daniil Kvyat ended FP3 with the 11th-fastest time ahead of Renault’s Esteban Ocon, although the Russian will drop five places from wherever he qualifies after picking up a grid penalty for taking on a new gearbox.
Alex Albon’s difficult start to the weekend continued after Red Bull encountered an electrical issue on his power unit, forcing him to miss the majority of the final practice running before qualifying.
Red Bull successfully managed to rebuild Albon’s RB16 chassis overnight after the Anglo-Thai driver suffered a heavy crash at Stowe during second practice on Friday, and he did emerge for the final 15 minutes to wind up 13th.
Sebastian Vettel’s Friday struggles carried over into Saturday as he could only manage a time good enough for 14th, ahead of Romain Grosjean’s Haas and George Russell, who was once again the fastest Williams driver at his home event.
The FP3 order was completed by Antonio Giovinazzi, Kevin Magnussen, Kimi Raikkonen and Nicholas Latiti.
Qualifying for the British Grand Prix gets underway at 2pm BST.
FULL RESULTS FROM FINAL PRACTICE FOR THE 2020 F1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX.
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