Bottas leads Mercedes 1-2 in final British GP Practice

Valtteri Bottas quickest in practice until Hamilton beats him in qualifying
Valtteri Bottas quickest in practice until Hamilton beats him in qualifying

One knew it would not be long before the sandbagging Mercedes team would start to show their hand. We say start because we will not see the true pace of the superior unbeatable Mercedes cars until qualifying for the British GP.

In cooler conditions Saturday morning at Silverstone Valtteri Bottas turned a lap of 1m25.873s to lead his teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.138s.

Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull 0.3 sec off the pace.

Today saw Racing Point fall back slightly in the cooler temperatures that seem to favor their rivals. Nonetheless, Lance Stroll (4th this morning) looks there or thereabouts and could give Verstappen a run for his money later on in qualifying.

Carlos Sainz Jr. rounded out the top-5 for McLaren with Charles Leclerc 6th for Ferrari.

Sebastian Vettel in the 2nd Ferrari was only 14th, 1.3 sec off the pace. There were rumors Ferrari was sabotaging his car on Friday (to ensure Leclerc was faster) and Saturday that appeared to continue. There was something "loose" in his cockpit yesterday that led to a change of pedals in FP2, and he had engine problems all day. The German was been back on the radio complaining again that something isn't quite right Saturday morning. He was in the pits as the team investigated.

Practice 3 Results

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:25.873 +0.000s 18
2 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:26.011 +0.138s 21
3 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda 1:26.173 +0.300s 15
4 18 Lance Stroll Racing Point BWT Mercedes 1:26.576 +0.703s 13
5 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren Renault 1:26.664 +0.791s 22
6 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:26.771 +0.898s 19
7 4 Lando Norris McLaren Renault 1:26.798 +0.925s 22
8 3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:26.841 +0.968s 14
9 27 Nico Hulkenberg Racing Point BWT Mercedes 1:26.872 +0.999s 14
10 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri Honda 1:27.046 +1.173s 19
11 26 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri Honda 1:27.076 +1.203s 17
12 31 Esteban Ocon Renault 1:27.158 +1.285s 15
13 23 Alexander Albon Red Bull Racing Honda 1:27.178 +1.305s 9
14 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:27.251 +1.378s 20
15 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:27.537 +1.664s 17
16 63 George Russell Williams Mercedes 1:27.738 +1.865s 16
17 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:27.825 +1.952s 15
18 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:27.860 +1.987s 15
19 7 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:27.976 +2.103s 19
20 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams Mercedes 1:28.112 +2.239s 15