Practice report

F1 British GP: Russell leads Hamilton in wet final practice

Mercedes F1 driver George Russell set a 1m37.529s in a rain-affected Saturday practice session

George Russell claimed the fastest time in a wet FP3 session at the British Grand Prix, pipping Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.035 seconds.

Despite a red flag and the effect of continued precipitation throughout the session, a steady level of improvement continued beyond the half-hour mark, allowing Russell to grab the fastest time - still over 10 seconds down on Friday's dry times - before the conditions worsened.

Rain had fallen all morning long to set up wet and cold conditions at the start of Saturday, although the circuit had since dried up slightly since the earlier postponement of the F3 sprint race.

Early running was tentative, but the circuit was good enough for intermediates as the inclement weather started to subside. Due to the conditions, the laptimes were around 20 seconds shy of yesterday's quickest times, although there was space for early improvement.

Yuki Tsunoda had set the first lap below the 1m50s and then improved to a 1m47.080s on his next attempt, leapfrogging the likes of Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso as they produced solid first efforts on the intermediate.

However, the momentum was interrupted by Pierre Gasly's slip off the road at Vale; the Alpine driver beached his car in the gravel to prompt the session's pause; a clean-up crew was called upon to extricate the Frenchman's stranded machinery.

The hiatus lasted for just seven minutes, giving the drivers a chance to get back on track before an expected band of further rain threatened to brush across the Silverstone circuit.

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24, passes Logan Sargeant, Williams FW46

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

But the track improvement was visible at the restart, as Oscar Piastri went more than two seconds quicker than Tsunoda's pre-pause lap.

And the times began to tumble: despite the onset rain arriving, it was little more than a sprinkling of light mizzle and thus could not disrupt the track evolution too much. Thus, the field started to sink below the 1m40s in short order, prompting the trading of times among the Mercedes, McLarens, Ferraris, and Max Verstappen.

The roulette wheel started to slow as the rain started to intensify slightly; this prompted a switch to race-style runs before further increased rain was set to hit the track. Lewis Hamilton set a 1m38.065s, which was beaten Russell's 1m37.529s; the elder Mercedes driver attempted to respond with a 1m37.564s, but he was just shy of the mark.

Lando Norris, who headlined FP1 and FP2, was third fastest and 0.185s away from Russell's benchmark, and almost half a second clear of fourth-placed Carlos Sainz.

Verstappen landed in fifth, ahead of Leclerc and Piastri, while Fernando Alonso improved late to leapfrog Sergio Perez into the top eight. Nico Hulkenberg completed the upper half of the field, 1.8s adrift of Russell's headline effort.

F1 British Grand Prix final practice result

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	G. Russell Mercedes	63	Mercedes	Mercedes	23	1'37.529		217.449
2	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44	Mercedes	Mercedes	28	+0.035 1'37.564	0.035	217.371
3	L. Norris McLaren	4	McLaren	Mercedes	20	+0.185 1'37.714	0.150	217.037
4	C. Sainz Ferrari	55	Ferrari	Ferrari	23	+0.610 1'38.139	0.425	216.097
5	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1	Red Bull	Red Bull	20	+0.864 1'38.393	0.254	215.539
6	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16	Ferrari	Ferrari	26	+0.925 1'38.454	0.061	215.406
7	O. Piastri McLaren	81	McLaren	Mercedes	27	+1.125 1'38.654	0.200	214.969
8	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14	Aston Martin	Mercedes	21	+1.411 1'38.940	0.286	214.348
9	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11	Red Bull	Red Bull	18	+1.755 1'39.284	0.344	213.605
10	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27	Haas	Ferrari	16	+1.811 1'39.340	0.056	213.485
11	A. Albon Williams	23	Williams	Mercedes	24	+2.074 1'39.603	0.263	212.921
12	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18	Aston Martin	Mercedes	23	+2.171 1'39.700	0.097	212.714
13	L. Sargeant Williams	2	Williams	Mercedes	22	+2.173 1'39.702	0.002	212.709
14	Y. Tsunoda RB	22	RB	Red Bull	26	+2.291 1'39.820	0.118	212.458
15	V. Bottas Sauber	77	Sauber	Ferrari	22	+2.713 1'40.242	0.422	211.564
16	E. Ocon Alpine	31	Alpine	Renault	25	+2.901 1'40.430	0.188	211.167
17	K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team	20	Haas	Ferrari	21	+3.010 1'40.539	0.109	210.939
18	D. Ricciardo RB	3	RB	Red Bull	28	+3.294 1'40.823	0.284	210.344
19	Z. Guanyu Sauber	24	Sauber	Ferrari	23	+4.256 1'41.785	0.962	208.356
20	P. Gasly Alpine	10	Alpine	Renault	2
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