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Formula 1
British GP
F1 British GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 & Qualifying
Saturday's action from the 10th round of the 2023 Formula 1 season
F1 enters double figures for the season with Silverstone hosting the 10th race weekend of 2023 as Red Bull looks to extend its perfect win record.
Max Verstappen has been dominant this term with a personal victory haul of seven creating an 81-point lead at the top of the drivers' standings. The Dutch driver also topped both Friday practice sessions.
Reverting back to a regular schedule following the Austrian sprint, Saturday’s schedule is for final practice at 11:30am BST followed by qualifying at 3pm BST.
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Summary
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Summary
- Another pole for Verstappen ahead of Norris and Piastri
- Eliminated in Q2: Hulkenberg, Stroll, Ocon, Sargeant and Bottas
- Knocked out in Q1: Perez, Tsunoda, Zhou, de Vries and Magnussen
- Q1 red-flagged with 3m11s left as Magnussen stops on track
- Hamilton spins into the gravel in Q1, but manages to continue
- The track is mostly dry for the start of qualifying, with all drivers on slicks
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Leaderboard
- Verstappen
- Norris
- Piastri
- Leclerc
- Sainz
- Russell
- Hamilton
- Albon
- Alonso
- Gasly
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16 hrs
36 min
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Rain
Good day one and all! Final practice is fast approaching and conditions are very different to yesterday...
Silverstone has been hit by showers this morning while heavy clouds hang overhead. The risk of further rain during final practice is up at 90%. Things are murky.
Breaking news
Missed the Friday action at the British GP? Never fear, here's all you need to know: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/what-we-learned-f1-friday-practice-british-gp/10492961/
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The drivers are in the garages ready for the start of the session, but will we get much early running? A few are likely to try out conditions, given they will be similar for qualifying, but nobody will want to take too much risk.
One driver who will be looking to make up for lost time is Leclerc. He was on the sidelines for the entire FP2 session due to an electrical issue with his Ferrari and duly lost vital mileage.
Green flag
Off we go!
Alonso and Norris break the brief silence - that is until the McLaren driver is ordered to stop the car at pit exit. A mechanic comes to check on the Brit and after getting the all-clear away he goes.
But Norris and McLaren could be in trouble for that, the incident has been noted by race control, as the mechanic appeared to touch the car despite Norris being over the pit exit line.
Anyway, we have plenty of cars on track now. The Ferrari pair have opted for soft tyres for their first stint, Piastri and Alonso are on hards while everyone else is on mediums.
That Norris pit exit incident has been put under investigation. Not the ideal way to start your Saturday.
Stopwatch
Verstappen doing Verstappen things, as he goes top of the times with his first lap of 1m28.836s.
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McLaren has confirmed some kit was still attached to the exhaust of the car, which is why Norris had to stop at the pitlane exit.
Both Mercedes drivers are also on softs for their first run. Hamilton slots in second, a tenth off Verstappen, with Russell taking fourth place a further tenth back.
Stopwatch
Verstappen improves with a 1m28.266s, only for Sainz to drill away to take first place with a 1m27.964s.
Leclerc's response to Sainz puts him 0.104s back to line up a Ferrari 1-2.
The rain-dar reports rain is on the way but it might just miss Silverstone for the rest of the session.
Hamilton's second push lap puts him top with a 1m27.948s, but here comes Sainz...
Stopwatch
...but Sainz doesn't improve, possibly because he came up to the back of Alonso who was about to start his own push lap. No matter, Ferrari is still smiling as Leclerc goes top with a 1m27.419s.
Piastri reports lightning over at Stowe. McQueen?
Not the smoothest of sessions for Zhou so far, who has completed just two laps and has no lap time to his name.
Stopwatch
Gasly pops up to second with a 1m27.893s on the softs.
Rain
All the drivers are getting the hurry up over team radio to get their soft tyre runs in as the rain is approaching. The track has just been declared wet.
Stopwatch
Albon is one to get a lap in with a 1m27.592s to go second and ahead of Alonso and Gasly.
The umbrellas are going up and the rain is wrecking those soft tyre efforts.
DRS has been disabled and low grip conditions have been declared. So that's it for the quick lap times.
The rain isn't putting Leclerc off, who confirms over Ferrari radio that he is staying out on soft tyres despite the conditions. Cut to him immediately running off track at Village. Classic.
Leclerc is persuaded to pit at the end of that lap and he duly obliges, which leaves the track empty with the F1 teams assessing conditions.
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Anyone for inters? The green-banded tyres are on show as Albon, Sainz, Sargeant, Norris and Piastri try out conditions.
Norris reports it is "surprisingly not that bad" on the inters and it appears to be enough encouragement for plenty of others to come out on to the track.
Mechanical problem
But it isn't good news down at Alfa Romeo, as Zhou has a MGU-H issue and that'll probably be the end of his session.
It looks dry enough for slicks and Norris agrees, as he heads out on a used set of soft tyres.
Norris slides around through Stowe and briefly runs off track where the track is wettest. A wise photographer once told me that's where the rain hits first at Silverstone, and it proves correct today.
There's a brief wet vs dry tyre race between Norris and Ocon, which goes the way of the Alpine driver on the inters as the McLaren runner continues to slide around.
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Ocon's couple of exploratory inter laps comes to a close to leave the track empty once again.
Both Ferraris and Red Bulls head out on track on the inters. That'll keep things busy for the final 10 minutes of the session.
Quote
"Tyres would be good for two laps in these conditions," Verstappen is told over team radio. "No, just one," is his response, giving a big clue to his current run plan.
By: Autosport Staff
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