Lewis Hamilton completed a clean sweep of practice sessions at Silverstone as he headed a disrupted final hour of running on a damp circuit.
The drivers lost around a quarter of an hour of running at the end of the session after Marcus Ericsson crashed heavily at Stowe. The Sauber driver lost control of his car on the exit kerb and made heavy contact with the barrier on the inside of the circuit.
The session was restarted with five minutes remaining which proved just enough time for drivers to do qualifying simulations on the soft tyres. The Mercedes drivers swapped fastest sector times all around the lap, Hamilton prevailing by just six-hundredths of a second.
It was just as close between the two Red Bulls behind them. Daniel Ricciardo was half a second off Hamilton’s pace and Max Verstappen, who grappled spectacularly with his car at the exit of Club, was only slightly slower.
Sebastian Vettel set the fifth-fastest time but he clapped his hands in frustration as he crossed the finishing line. “I think we failed a gearbox again,” he warned his team. Vettel has already had two five-place grid penalties for gearbox changes this year.
The second half of the top ten was very close – just 0.159s covered Valtteri Bottas in sixth to Esteban Gutierrez in eleventh. Cars from four different teams separated them: Fernando Alonso’s McLaren, Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India, Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari and Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Toro Rosso.
Third practice visual gaps
Lewis Hamilton – 1’30.904
+0.063 Nico Rosberg – 1’30.967
+0.584 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’31.488
+0.657 Max Verstappen – 1’31.561
+1.145 Sebastian Vettel – 1’32.049
+1.832 Valtteri Bottas – 1’32.736
+1.850 Fernando Alonso – 1’32.754
+1.894 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’32.798
+1.929 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’32.833
+1.985 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’32.889
+1.991 Esteban Gutierrez – 1’32.895
+2.440 Romain Grosjean – 1’33.344
+2.457 Sergio Perez – 1’33.361
+2.536 Felipe Massa – 1’33.440
+2.634 Daniil Kvyat – 1’33.538
+2.806 Felipe Nasr – 1’33.710
+2.865 Jolyon Palmer – 1’33.769
+3.145 Kevin Magnussen – 1’34.049
+3.567 Rio Haryanto – 1’34.471
+3.647 Marcus Ericsson – 1’34.551
+3.754 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’34.658
Combined times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’31.654 | 1’31.660 | 1’30.904 | -0.75 | 75 |
2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’31.687 | 1’30.967 | -0.72 | 51 | |
3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’32.773 | 1’32.051 | 1’31.488 | -0.563 | 66 |
4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’33.202 | 1’32.286 | 1’31.561 | -0.725 | 64 |
5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’32.501 | 1’32.570 | 1’32.049 | -0.452 | 68 |
6 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’32.492 | 1’34.321 | 1’32.798 | +0.306 | 78 |
7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’33.039 | 1’32.736 | 1’32.833 | +0.097 | 76 |
8 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’34.263 | 1’33.493 | 1’32.736 | -0.757 | 89 |
9 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’33.527 | 1’33.040 | 1’32.754 | -0.286 | 63 |
10 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’33.446 | 1’33.840 | 1’32.889 | -0.557 | 54 |
11 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas-Ferrari | 1’34.000 | 1’32.895 | -1.105 | 42 | |
12 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | 1’34.132 | 1’33.763 | 1’33.042 | -0.721 | 54 |
13 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’33.235 | 1’34.356 | 1’33.361 | +0.126 | 77 |
14 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’34.547 | 1’33.614 | 1’33.344 | -0.27 | 67 |
15 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’34.456 | 1’33.801 | 1’33.440 | -0.361 | 76 |
16 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’33.738 | 1’34.139 | 1’33.538 | -0.2 | 64 |
17 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’34.805 | 1’34.154 | 1’33.710 | -0.444 | 54 |
18 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’34.787 | 1’34.610 | 1’33.769 | -0.841 | 81 |
19 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1’34.959 | 1’34.049 | -0.91 | 49 | |
20 | Rio Haryanto | Manor-Mercedes | 1’36.647 | 1’35.841 | 1’34.471 | -1.37 | 77 |
21 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor-Mercedes | 1’36.136 | 1’34.549 | 1’34.658 | +0.109 | 73 |
22 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’36.003 | 1’34.722 | 1’34.551 | -0.171 | 60 |
23 | Charles Leclerc | Haas-Ferrari | 1’35.869 | 25 | |||
24 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 1’35.980 | 30 |
2016 British Grand Prix
- 2016 British Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Second Driver of the Weekend win for Verstappen
- Wet race at Silverstone leaves many cold
- 2016 British Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 British Grand Prix
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
9th July 2016, 11:20
This Ferrari is such a pile of junk. Vettel has been so unfortunate this year. Ferrari need to sort their reliability out!
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
9th July 2016, 11:47
Probably a strong sign of RBR overtaking Ferrari on pure speed. It could only be tracks like Monza or maybe even Spa where Ferrari might have the advantage due to its engine.
Gary
9th July 2016, 12:02
Sometimes people forget, or never knew, that aside from 1975-1979 and 2000-2004, Ferrari was never a dominant car, and for much (although not all) of the other years the Ferrari was not particularly competitive.
BOSS
9th July 2016, 12:17
Right
Robbie (@robbie)
9th July 2016, 12:45
Could be said for all of the top teams, no? Although many haven’t had the extended dominance runs.
Dr Fritch
9th July 2016, 13:38
Except Ferrari, their dominance was more in the ability to copy other teams Solutions witch where suppose to be secret for a full year or ban them, also they could run ilegal solutions whitout reprocussions, tc and and flexibel underfloor. To name A few.
Dr Fritch
9th July 2016, 13:43
Ferrari have actualy never been at building A competetive package based on only on car and driver. Its The main reason they are not The top team now. Their main competetive power is political and monetary from the deal they have with Bernie.
Robbie (@robbie)
9th July 2016, 12:47
Great to see Nico once again come ‘out of the box’ with a newly re-assembled car, and be within a hair of the top time in final practice.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
9th July 2016, 13:28
Darn, missed F1fanatic predictions deadline :D
gonna state it here 1:29 Hamilton…
Race results, Ham, Ros, Ves, Rai, Vet…