Bottas leads Hamilton, Leclerc in frantic final practice for F1 Eifel GP

Valtteri Bottas set the fastest time in the first on-track session of the Eifel Grand Prix weekend, heading Mercedes Formula 1 teammate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

After Friday practice was a wash-out with both sessions cancelled due to fog, Bottas posted a 1m26.225s to top a very cold FP3 during F1’s first visit to the Nurburgring in seven years.

Bottas ended up 0.136s quicker than Hamilton in the qualifying simulation runs, with the current world championship leader struggling to get in a clean lap.

Hamilton was set to go fastest on his first Soft tyre run but ran wide at the final chicane, before his second run – in which he was also posting purple sectors – was ruined by a spinning Williams of Nicholas Latifi.

On used tyres, the six-times world champion was finally able to complete a clean run to improve to second late on, ending up just over a tenth off his teammate who he leads by 44 points in the championship.

Leclerc was an impressive third for Ferrari, just 0.456s off the pace of Bottas’ ultimate benchmark heading into qualifying.

Sixth place went the way of McLaren’s Lando Norris, ahead of the sole-running Racing Point of Sergio Perez.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull driver Alex Albon and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.

Lance Stroll did not take part in FP3 after feeling unwell, with Racing Point calling up Nico Hulkenberg on standby in case the Canadian is unable to contest qualifying.

Hulkenberg, who made two appearances earlier in the season as replacement for Sergio Perez at the two Silverstone rounds, was already in Germany and has travelled to the Nurburgring.

FULL FINAL PRACTICE RESULTS FOR THE 2020 F1 EIFEL GRAND PRIX.