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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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But hold up, Piastri is fastest of all now! With five minutes remaining, we could be about to see things change significantly again.
Stopwatch
Verstappen improves his time and his position to take to the top. A 1m28.570s marks out that the track is almost entirely dry now.
Verstappen is currently P7 and he has continued with another effort. Purple micro-sectors are being set by the Red Bull driver.
Stroll's most recent time has been deleted for track limits. His effort would have been good enough to escape Q2 as things stand.
Stopwatch
Alonso and Albon both massively improve their fortunes, with the Spaniard fastest of all with a 1m29.052s.
The struggles of Aston Martin appear dire - Alonso is down to P11 and Stroll P12. That would see both drop out in this session, and both used fresh tyres for their laps.
Highlighting the quality of Norris' effort, Verstappen can only go third fastest, after Gasly separates the pair. Could we have an unlikely home pole-sitter?
Stopwatch
The Aston Martins are immediately pushed back as Norris, Sainz, Ocon, Russell and Leclerc all better the effort. The benchmark is now a 1:29.427s.
Stopwatch
A 1m.30.660 to open things from Alonso. Stroll goes P2.
Now Verstappen has been told there will be drops of rain for the next five minutes. Hands out and look to the sky - that seems to be the most effective weather solution right now!
Quote
"No more rain coming," McLaren informs Piastri. Make up your mind!
Green flag
Alonso leads out the field as Q2 gets underway. 15 minutes of action, coming your way.
With rain on the way, the queue has formed at the end of the pitlane once again.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has predicted more rain in the next five minutes. If that offers up more action like we just saw, bring it on!
Replays are now revealing the chaos among those that were slow to leave the pits with no one wanting to wait in the on-track traffic queue as per the unwritten gentlemen's agreement.
Narrowly escaping embarrassment was Alonso, who was only 0.019s faster than Perez and survived by a single position.
Also out are Tsunoda, Zhou, de Vries and Magnussen.
Let's count them - one, two, three, four, five failures to reach Q3 in succession for Perez. You can only imagine what this debrief will be like tonight!
Bottas loses power and is out in Q1 despite being P11 on the road.
Norris ends the session fastest from Leclerc and Russell and Perez loses out. He is down to P16!
Perez is out! Again!
Stroll recovers from P16 to P2! No one is safe!
Bottas is third as Norris goes to the top!
Albon goes fastest of all with a 1m29.466s. This is all going to change now!
50 seconds after the session resumes and the pitlane is still not clear. Finally, with 1m50s on the clock, the final drivers finally join the track.
Green flag
The session resumes.
Or not. Red Bull do a visual check and send him out to join the rear of the queue. Perez will be the first driver out of the pits.
His front-left Pirelli also made contact. Red Bull will have to check for suspension damage on Verstappen's car before sending him out onto the track.
Crash
Verstappen has pulled out of his garage and has a broken front wing. He's hit the pit wall! He is unlikely to get a lap in when this session resumes now. Bizarre!
The session will resume in three minutes!
Still no indication of a restart time but more and more drivers are joining that queue in the pits. Perez and Hulkenberg are the two drivers right on the bubble.
No indication has been given for a session restart, but Perez and Albon have headed to the end of the pitlane in preparation. 

On the track, the crane has only just arrived to recover the stricken Haas.
Magnussen, Zhou, Sargeant, Bottas and Albon are the five drivers that are in the bottom five as things stand.
Magnussen has stopped on the track next to the pit entry. 

He reports, "Everything has switched off."

The session will resume with 3m11s on the clock.
Red flag
RED FLAG
Quote
"It's raining a lot more now. If we go out, it's going to be [on] wets," reports Ocon.
Hulkenberg improves to P15, dropping Albon to last.
NO! Albon's time has been deleted for a track limits violation. He is back down to P19 with only Hulkenberg slower.

By: Autosport Staff

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