The third free practice session for the British GP was firmly in British hands. George Russell set the fastest time in the qualifying dress rehearsal in wet Silverstone with a time of 1:37.529 minutes, ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton and McLaren driver Lando Norris. After the Formula 3 sprint race could not even start beforehand, Formula 1 was lucky with the weather: the track was wet, but it had stopped raining shortly before the start of the session. Light rain only returned later in the training.
The entire session was driven on intermediate tires. In order to save tires for qualifying today and the race tomorrow, all drivers only put on one set of intermediates. Accordingly, the times on the worn tires hardly improved as the training time increased. Considering the adverse conditions, there were only a few incidents.
The result: Whenever the Mercedes drivers were on the track, they were competitive. In the end, George Russell was 35 thousandths ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Lando Norris was just under two tenths of a second behind in third place. The first gap was already opening up behind him: fourth-placed Carlos Sainz was already six tenths of a second behind, while Max Verstappen in fifth place was almost nine tenths behind.
Sixth place went to Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari ahead of Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren. Fernando Alonso was one of only a few drivers to improve at the end of the session and put the Aston Martin in eighth place ahead of Sergio Perez. Nico Hülkenberg confirmed the strong impression of the previous day, even in wet conditions, by finishing ninth. However, the Haas driver was already 1.8 seconds behind. Alexander Albon completed the top 10.
The incidents: Max Verstappen was the first to cause a small shock. The world championship leader made a perfect 360-degree spin between Brooklands and Luffield, but stayed completely on the asphalt and was able to continue driving without any problems.
Pierre Gasly was less fortunate shortly afterwards: the Frenchman lost the rear of the car when braking for the Vale chicane and spun into the gravel. Because he was unable to free himself from there under his own power, the session had to be interrupted for a good five minutes. For Gasly, the spin meant an early end to the day after just seven minutes of training.
Valtteri Bottas was responsible for the last yellow phase. The Sauber driver made a small mistake at the exit of turn 3 and ended up spinning in turn 4. “I have no grip at all,” he radioed from the cockpit. The Finn was able to continue driving without any problems.
The weather: With 11 degrees Celsius and only a little rain, the numerous fans in the stands were able to enjoy a wonderful English summer day. The forecasts for today’s qualifying are similar, as are those for tomorrow’s race.