George Russell topped the final practice session for the 2024 British Grand Prix as the rain hit Silverstone.
The Mercedes W15 Formula 1 car seemed to be in its element in the wet around the Silverstone track, and as a result both drivers, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton took the top two spots respectively at the end of FP3.
And while Mercedes looked strong, the same could be said about Red Bull and McLaren and while Lando Norris was third and Max Verstappen fifth, those two will definitely be in the mix come qualifying, as they set their best times before Russell did, when the track was not at its best grip levels.
As for Ferrari, at one point in FP3, Charles Leclerc was looking good in the damp conditions but finished sixth with Carlos Sainz fourth.
All in all, chances are that we will have yet another close qualifying on Saturday afternoon at Silverstone.
Buildup towards FP3
McLaren emerged as favorites after the FP1 and FP2 for the 2024 British Grand Prix, and while Red Bull did not set any headline times, the battle seems to be restricted between these two teams for this weekend as well. Mercedes and Ferrari were a bit behind.
But the interesting thing is that it had rained overnight in Silverstone, which means any grip developed on the track is now washed off, not to mention the chance of having a wet qualifying.
So who will master the wet conditions?
FP3 Session Highlights
Like any British summer, after dry running on Friday, the rain arrived in time for the final practice. The session started with the raining downfall reducing so the drivers set out on track with Intermediate tyres.
However the track was expected to dry as the cars run on it with the times will improve but the drivers were making use of the wet conditions and get a feel of the track in such conditions.
Five minutes into the session, Verstappen had a 360 spin on his outlap at the exit of Brooklands, but keeps going, and minutes later the first Yellow flag came out and soon became a Red Flag.
It was Pierre Gasly who caused the stoppage as he lost control of his A524 under braking into Turn 16 and ended up beached in the gravel.
Leclerc also was out of shape at the same corner but ended up bouncing on the kerbs.
The session was restarted with 45 minutes remaining on the clock, as the rain seemed to have returned.
Almost 20 minutes into the session, Russell reported that track was definitely drying up a bit, as running continued and times kept dropping with several drivers taking turn at the top of the timing screens.
Valtteri Bottas brought out a brief Yellow flag after spinning at Turn 4. He got the car back on track and reported that he did not have any grip.
Daniel Ricciardo might be in trouble as he was weaving in the pitlane, as if he was trying to heat his tyres! He will see the stewards after the session.
The track kept improving massively with drivers improving their time by chunks of over seven tenths of a second, as they relentlessly pound around Silverstone.
Verstappen, Leclerc, and Hamilton in particular seemed in good form out there.
Norris had a moment at Turn 1, and ran wide taking the long way around into the run-off area, while Sainz had a snap of oversteer at Luffield but catches it.
It seems it was Sainz's engineer who was at fault and receives this message from his driver: "Ricky, the radio. I was in the middle of Turn 7."
Halfway into the session and here's how the standings were:
Less than 30 minutes on the clock and McLaren inform Norris that rain will return in the final 15 minutes of the session.
Verstappen soon has a sideways moment in Turn 7, but keeps his RB20 on the black stuff - 20 minutes from the end.
In the final 15 minutes, intensity of the rain increased and most drivers returned to their garages, with only a handful of cars still running.
One of them was Esteban Ocon's Alpine and he locks up into Turn 16 and just manages to keep his car out of the gravel trap.
More drivers join the action in the final five minutes of FP3 and practice starts wrapped up the session.
How they finished
Russell set a lap time of 1:37.529 to go fastest of all with teammate Hamilton only 0.035s behind in second place.
Norris was 0.185s off the pace in third and over four tenths clear of Sainz, fourth fastest in the Ferrari.
Verstappen was fifth fastest for Red Bull over eight tenths of the pace and 0.061s ahead of Leclerc, sixth fastest in the other Ferrari.
Oscar Piastri was seventh fastest in the second McLaren, 1.125s away from the best time, and 0.286s ahead of Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard eighth fastest.
Sergio Perez was ninth fastest ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in tenth.
British GP FP3 Classification
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