British GP: Max Verstappen leads Red Bull domination in FP3; both Mercedes cars in top 5


British GP: Max Verstappen leads Red Bull domination in FP3; both Mercedes cars in top 5

Max Verstappen is on top in FP3 by a large margin.

With the last practice session of the weekend having concluded, Max Verstappen looks poised for a very good qualifying session and race. The Dutchman came out later on during the session with 20 minutes already having gone past, than other drivers like Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, or Sergio Perez, but immediately went almost 5 tenths clear.

ADVERTISEMENT

At the end of the session, Verstappen was more than 4 tenths clear of his teammate, Sergio Perez, who is himself almost 3 hundredths ahead of Red Bull’s closest rival, Charles Leclerc. Verstappen topped all of the sector times and looked very comfortable while doing so. But his weekend until now had been rather bumpy.

In FP2, Verstappen reported hearing ‘strange noises’ coming from his car. Upon investigation, it was found that the car’s new floor had damage, requiring repairs. Perhaps this floor is one of the reasons for the Dutchman’s strong pace, and why his teammate is so far behind: Perez does not have the new floor in Silverstone.

Also Read: British Grand Prix Live stream: When & Where to Watch the F1 Race, TV Channel, Timings and Weather

ADVERTISEMENT

Full results of FP3

Full results
The full results of the FP3 session.

The first driver to go out during the session was Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel. FP3 remained dry, but cloudy and the track temperature was much lower than it was yesterday. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll completed the most laps with 24. Charles Leclerc had earlier reported that he suffered from power unit issues in the second practice sessions, and also complained of a strange upshift between turn 16 and 17 towards the end of FP3. The return of Ferrari’s reliability issues can provide a further boost to Red Bull during the race.

Carlos Sainz, who had topped FP2 yesterday, continued his complaints of the car’s bouncing that he had suffered yesterday. On the team radio, he said: “The problems from yesterday in the high speed are not better.” this is not good news for Ferrari, whose car had at least looked the quickest, till Max Verstappen’s performance in FP3 put that into contention.

AlphaTauri struggled for pace, as they had all weekend, and Daniel Ricciardo also struggled, with him more than a second off the pace of teammate Lando Norris, who was himself 1.2 seconds behind Max Verstappen on top of the timesheets. Based on the FP3 running, The Dutchman looks well poised to take a second consecutive pole position.

Also Read: “It’s bouncing still, quite a bit,” Lewis Hamilton pragmatic despite a positive start to the weekend.

ADVERTISEMENT

Also Read: “It’s never nice to hear boos for any driver,” Christian Horner says cheers will return for Max Verstappen in Austria next weekend