Silverstone, FP3: Hamilton takes over at top on home soil

Lewis Hamilton took over from team-mate Nico Rosberg at the top of the Silverstone timesheets, beating the German by half a second in final practice for this weekend’s British Grand Prix.

After Rosberg had topped the order in the opening sessions on Friday, Hamilton went quickest on both the prime and option tyre in FP3, with his late qualifying run netting a session-best time of 1:32.917, 0.552s ahead of Rosberg who appeared to encounter traffic in the final sector of his quali sim.

Third quickest was Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, though the Finn’s best time of 1:33.692 was almost eight tenths of a second adrift of Hamilton’s benchmark. Raikkonen’s Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel was fourth.

The session began in cooler conditions than on Friday, with an air temperature of 21 degrees and a track temperature of 27. After the P1 slot changed hands among a clutch of likely midfield runners, Williams were the first of the top teams to show, with Felipe Massa claiming P1 before team-mate Valtteri Bottas took over at the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:35.082.

His tenure at the top didn’t last long and the Finn was soon beaten by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who dipped into the 1m34s bracket to edge the Williams driver by 0.150s.

After taking to the track for installation laps almost as soon as the green light came on at the end of the pit lane, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton then retreated to the team’s garages and didn’t reappear until more than 20 minutes had elapsed.

Rosberg’s first timed lap of the day netted him tenth place but with his second lap he immediately set fastest times in all three sectors to bypass Vettel at the top of the list, going 0.496 quicker than the Ferrari driver. Hamilton then popped in a quicker time to edge his team-mate by 0.037s.

The Red Bulls of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Riccirado also made a late bow but when they took to the track Kvyat jumped to second, three tenths behind Rosberg, before Hamilton claimed P1.

Rosberg was soon back in control. His next run was impressive, with the German again lighting each sector purple to set a new benchmark of 1:33.731, just under seven tenths of a second quicker than Hamilton.

Hamilton responded, however, and his next was quicker still, eclipsing Rosberg’s time by 0.398.

With half an hour gone Mercedes held the top two spots, with Raikkonen now third ahead of Kvyat and Vettel, with Ricciardo sixth in the second Red Bull ahead of Bottas, Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado and the second Toro of Max Verstappen. Raikkonen, though, was over 1.2s down on Hamilton’s pace.

McLaren’s Jenson Button was the first to make the shift from the prime hard tyre to the medium option Pirelli compound with 25 minutes remaining but there was still time for hard-tyre running elsewhere and while Vettel improved marginally but didn’t rise up the order Verstappen moved to sixth with a best prime time 1:35.048 to sit 1.7s off Hamilton.

Following preparation for the qualifying runs, Bottas was the first to break the silence and his first lap on mediums saw him take half a second out of his hard tyre time to jump from P8 to P3 with a lap of 1:34.538. That was still 1.2s adrift of Hamilton’s hard tyre best.

Hamilton then set the pace again, logging a lap of 1:32.917 to hold P1. With no sign of Rosberg, Raikkonen then claimed second spot with a time of 1:33.692, almost eight tenths down on the Briton.

Rosberg left it late but when he did venture out on medium tyres the German comfortably took second from Raikkonen, setting personal bests in the first two sectors. He might have edged closer to Hamilton’s time than the eventual gap of 0.552 but traffic in the final corners compromised his lap.

Behind the Mercedes duo, Raikkonen stayed third ahead of Vettel, with Verstappen maintaining Toro Rosso’s good showing this weekend so far with fifth place ahead of team-mate Sainz. Williams finished seventh and eight, with Massa ahead Bottas and the top ten order was completed by Kvyat and Maldonado.