The fight for pole and victory in the 2018 Formula 1 British Grand Prix is going to get interesting with both Mercedes and Ferrari securing the top two rows in the final practice session with Lewis Hamilton heading Kimi Raikkonen.
The Finn went to the top of the standings on his quick lap towards the end of the session with a 1m26.815s, but Hamilton fought back and displaced him from the top spot with a 1m26.722s to lead FP3 at Silverstone.
Both pushed down Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas (1m27.364s) to third with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel (1m27.851s) in fourth, but the German only did the eight laps. After he pitted under the red flag, he didn’t return to the track for any more laps due to neck issues.
Red Bull Racing duo of Max Verstappen (1m28.012s) and Daniel Ricciardo (1m28.018s) were fifth and sixth, as the Dutchman did the most number of laps at 22 to recover some lost time from FP2. Sauber’s Charles Leclerc surprised to end up as the best of the rest.
The Monegasque (1m28.146s) was beaten at one point by Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m28.418s), but he got the place back from the Dane with teammate Marcus Ericsson (1m28.814s) in 10th rounded out a good session for the Swiss team.
Haas’ Romain Grosjean (1m28.554s) was ninth. With the upgrade this weekend, Force India continued its good run with Esteban Ocon (1m28.917s) finishing 11th from Sergio Perez (1m29.066s). McLaren’s Fernando Alonso (1m29.070s) finished 13th.
But the Spaniard did his fast lap on the medium tyres and was only 0.004s behind Perez with Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m29.094s) only 0.024s behind Alonso. Renault’s Carlos Sainz (1m29.133s) followed his teammate ahead of the Williams pair.
It was Lance Stroll (1m29.829s) in 16th ahead of Sergey Sirotkin (1m29.984s) – the Williams showing better pace this weekend after the upgrades. McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne (1m30.004s) ended up 18th on the medium tyres.
The session early on was red-flagged due to a huge shunt for Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley. Going into Turn 7, the Kiwi’s front left suspension broke completely as he went airborne onto the tyre barriers.
He was taken to the medical center but was cleared by the doctors to carry on. He was on his quick lap when the incident took place. As a result of the crash, the team decided not to run Pierre Gasly (1m30.050s) who did only the four laps to be 19th.