After the two sessions yesterday, Formula 1 the day begins on Saturday at Silverstone with the third free practice. After 60 minutes spent between dry and wet, it's Charles Leclerc to close in front of everyone, with Albon e Alonso to complete the "podium". Pretty colorless session for the Red Bull, eighth with Verstappen and 14th with Perez. Problems for Zhou, stopped in the pits for the entire session due to an MGU-K failure.
Watch out for the weather…
Immediately problems on the car of Alexander albon, who surprised yesterday with an excellent third place and is enjoying good form, fresh from a P7 in Canada and a P11 in Austria. The cars take to the track with dry tires, but in every pitwall the eyes are attentive to the radar for possible showers of rain.
Just over ten minutes into the session, Verstappen confirms before all, as already seen yesterday both in the FP1 both in FP2. The Dutchman is ousted from the top of the standings by Carlos Sainz, 3 tenths faster albeit with a compound advantage.
In the meantime, Norris is the protagonist of a little one accident. McLaren forgets a fan on car number 4, the Englishman stops the car at the end of the pitlane, a mechanic runs to remove it but, in doing so, he crosses the white line and is placed under investigation.
Work to do for Mercedes
Le Ferrari and Mercedes they are, for now, the only teams to run on the soft tyre, while most of the other teams use the medium. Speaking of Mercedes, the goal is to improve after one dull Friday. For this purpose, Mick Schumacher (reserve driver) remained at simulator until 2am last night to help find the square after two tough sessions.
After 20 minutes, Leclerc he puts himself in front of everyone, with Hamilton according to and Sainz third, both more than half a second behind the Monegasque. Worth mentioning is the good performance of Norris, seventh with yellow rubber. The latest updates predict rain with around 20 minutes to go in FP3, so the teams will try to condense all scheduled work for the remaining dry 15 minutes.
Leclerc confirms his lead
Other teams (such as Williams, Aston Martin, AlphaTauri and Alpine) mount soft tires and partially distort the ranking. Albon (who took to the track after problems at the start of the session) placed in the according to place, less than 2 tenths from Leclerc, with Alonso third, gasly room and Sergeant seventh. After just one quick lap, however, it starts to drizzle and no one improves their time anymore.
All the drivers return to the pits, except Leclerc and continue to do a couple more laps on soft tires on a dry track, to get used to these variable conditions that could happen again in qualifying. After about 5 minutes of action, some riders take to the track with intermediate tyres to test the route. The only exception is Lando Norris, who uses red slick tyres.
La pioggia continues to fall on Silverstone until the end of 60 minutes, so the ranking remains unchanged. Charles Leclerc takes first place ahead of Albon e Alonso. gasly e Hamilton close the top 5, with Sainz, Sergeant e Verstappen following. Russell e tsunoda they are ninth and tenth respectively. Excellent work by the Monegasque, considering that he spent all of FP2 in the pits for a problem with his Ferrari.
Outside the top 10, in order: De Vries, Norris, Stroll, Perez, Magnussen, Or with, Piastres, Bottas, Hulkenberg e Zhou. Difficult session for the Chinese Alfa Romeo driver, relegated to last position with only 2 laps under his belt due to an MGU-K problem which forced him to pit. Small parenthesis: the top 3 with intermediate tyres è Verstappen, gasly, Or with. The appointment is at 16:00 for the qualifications!
