Mercedes stays ahead, Hamilton tops FP3

F1 Grand Prix, GP 70th Anniversary, Silverstone Circuit

Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas kept Mercedes firmly in front in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the 70th Anniversary race in Silverstone. Lando Norris was the closest challenger with a fastest lap on medium tyres.

Sebastian Vettel kicked off third practice as he headed out first on a set of hard compound tyres. On the back of reliability woes on Friday, the Ferrari driver and his team were eager to find out if everything got sorted. Ferrari also reported they changed Leclerc's PU due to the problems encountered on Vettel's car.

It seemed to be the case for Vettel, but when Kvyat did his installation lap moments later, he reported that his steering wheel was not pointing straight, giving his mechanics a task to complete.

McLaren, on the other hand, sent their drivers out on different tyres on their first outings. Norris on soft, Sainz on mediums. The latter's car sported lots of flow-vis paint on the rear wing to help the team gather more information about its aerodynamic package as they compare the efficiency of the two rear wing specifications available.

After about 20 minutes, the action heated up with several drivers fitting new soft tyres to try to qualifying runs. Bottas turned out fastest after the runs of both Mercedes, but Hamilton later returned the favour and moved up in front, while Verstappen was 2 tenths behind.

Norris later went fastest on mediums, and interestingly was nearly half a second faster than Sainz who was on fresh softs.

It was soon rectified again by even faster laps from the Mercedes on softer tyres, but the difference between the McLarens was surely telling, and promising for strategies during qualifying and the race on Sunday.