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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

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23

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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The Mercedes and Aston Martin pairs are also on track now. This is all about getting a feel for conditions on the inters ahead of qualifying.
Rain
The rain is getting heavier but it isn't putting off the majority of the drivers. So far everyone is keeping it clean and tidy, knowing how costly an off would be so close to qualifying.
Stopwatch
Keeping an eye on the lap times, Verstappen's 1m38.580s stands out compared to the rest. It is about 1.5s quicker than anyone else right now.
The Alpine pair are Verstappen's closest challengers on the inters, with Gasly half a second off and Ocon just a couple more tenths back.
Checkered flag
So, that's all folks for practice for the British GP. Leclerc tops FP3 in the early dry running, but in the current wet conditions Verstappen is the one to watch out for.
Stopwatch
Hamilton pops in a late 1m39.988s which wasn't too shabby, while Leclerc has spun at Club but has been able to continue without any trouble.
Practice starts are the final order of the session, with plenty to digest ahead of qualifying.
Breaking news
Here's the full report on final practice: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-british-gp-fp3-report-/10493194/

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23, Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri AT04

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23, Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri AT04

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

With that, it is time for a short breather. We'll be back in action ahead of F1 qualifying which is set to start at 3pm BST.
And we're back! Good afternoon and welcome to Autosport's coverage of qualifying for the British Grand Prix. I'm Sam Hall, and I will be your guide for the coming hour(ish) of action!
The weather looks to be clearing up after the F2 cars lifted much of the standing water during the category's sprint race. A full rundown of that eventful race can be found here. 

https://www.autosport.com/formula2/news/f2-silverstone-sprint-race-report/10493252/

It's not exactly something that you could have missed, but in case of that eventuality, Brad Pitt has begun filming his F1-based movie at Silverstone this weekend. 

Toto Wolff has revealed Mercedes' involvement in the project.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mercedes-reveals-involvement-in-apex-f1-movie/10493109/

With just under 15 minutes remaining before qualifying gets underway, the rain has begun to fall again, although not much of it so far.
It may come as no surprise, but the risk of rain for the qualifying hour is 100%.
Despite the session quickly approaching, drivers are still being shown talking on the pitwall. With the risk that the start of Q1 could be the best conditions of the segment, you'd expect them all to be in the cars by this point.

So who are we looking at in the pole race? It is impossible to go beyond Verstappen but Leclerc, Albon and Sainz have all shown strong pace so far.

Two minutes until we go green and the umbrellas appear to be going up! DRS has been disabled and 'low grip conditions' declared.
The queue is forming at the end of the pitlane with Russell heading the order from his Mercedes team-mate, Hamilton.
There is a mix of intermediate and slick tyres on show. One minute to go!
The two Mercedes drivers are both on soft slick rubber.
Green flag
Q1 is underway. Let's do this!
Slick tyres appear to be the favoured option at this moment, but Leclerc, Sainz, Sargeant, Magnussen and Hulkenberg have fitted the green-walled intermediate rubber.
Quote
There is minimal spray at the absolute most, so expect those on intermediates to box instantly for slick. 

"We should box for dry," Leclerc tells Ferrari.
Stopwatch
Here come the early times as Russell sets a 1m35.257s.
Off track
Drama as Hamilton spins off the track and into the gravel at Stowe. He will now be praying that the rain doesn't come within the next five minutes.
Stopwatch
While we were focused on Hamilton's off, Verstappen has gone fastest with an opening effort of 1m33.535s. 

But given the green nature of the track surface, expect the times to tumble across the duration.
Incidentally, Hamilton's lap has been deleted for track limits. Given he was in the gravel, that's a peculiar one.
Stopwatch
Logan Sargeant reports rain is now falling as Alonso goes to the top with a 1:31.437s
Rain
As the rain begins to make itself known, Piastri, Albon, Norris, Sainz and Hamilton are the bottom five runners.
But Norris quickly rectifies his situation, leaping up to P5 although still one-second off the session best.
Hamilton too climbs to P8 to relegate Perez into the bottom five!
As predicted, the times are falling with Alonso improving to a 1m30.730s with Russell now second and Piastri - previously last - up to P4.
Perez is now the slowest of all. Or he was. He improves, but only to P12. That will not be enough unless the rain really falls hard now.
Stopwatch
A 1m30.719s for Verstappen lowers the bar as the umbrellas go up. The rain is here now!
Albon climbs from P19 to P12. A relief after his pace so far this weekend. That pushes Perez back down to P15 and he is on the bubble yet again!
Quote
"Rain everywhere at the moment," reports Russell.
NO! Albon's time has been deleted for a track limits violation. He is back down to P19 with only Hulkenberg slower.
Hulkenberg improves to P15, dropping Albon to last.
Quote
"It's raining a lot more now. If we go out, it's going to be [on] wets," reports Ocon.
Red flag
RED FLAG

By: Autosport Staff

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