Follow F1i’s live coverage of all the action in qualifying at Silverstone for the 2016 British Grand Prix.
After a fairly calm and business-like day on Friday which saw Lewis Hamilton top the time sheets and his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg miss all of FP2 with a water leak, this morning’s FP3 session was a much more turbulent affair.
First of all we had rain which left the session starting on a damp track. Many drivers decided to sit out the first half hour of the session in the pits but eventually everyone did take to the track and posted lap times. Once again Hamilton was top of the times, but Rosberg bounced back strongly from missing Friday afternoon and was just 0.063s off his team mate’s time. The battle for pole position is well and truly on!
The Red Bull pair were over half a second off the Mercedes times, but we’re still not sure whether everyone has fully shown their hand so Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen may yet be able to spring a surprise. Don’t count out Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari, either.
Unfortunately Raikkonen’s team mate Sebastian Vettel might already have been dealt a body blow. After an old gearbox broke on him yesterday, he has a brand new race unit on his car for FP3 which seemed to fail on him at the very end of the session just as he was crossing the finish line. If it does prove terminal and requires another replacement then Vettel will be hit with his second five-place grid penalty in a row.
Also firmly on the back foot is Marcus Ericsson, who likely will miss out altogether in today’s qualifying session after a nasty accident at Club this morning which thoroughly wrecked his Sauber. The team will be working hard to get his car back together again but a back row or pit lane start tomorrow looks on the cards for the Swede.
Ad for everyone else, their fortunes depend on how well they fare in this afternoon’s qualifying session. Will the rain return again and prove a decisive factor? Or will it be plain sailing for the Mercedes marque? Qualifying gets underway at 1pm BST and we’ll be here to bring you all the news and information from trackside as it happens on F1i’s live page. Make sure you don’t miss a minute!
FP3 report: Hamilton tops red-flagged FP3 as Ericsson crashes
Chris Medland’s 2016 British Grand Prix preview
Romain Grosjean on predicting race results and collisions between team mates, in his latest column for F1i
From the cockpit: Felipe Nasr on back-to-back races
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