Leclerc tops final red-flagged practice at Silverstone / Photo: Andrej ISAKOVIC - AFP
Leclerc tops final red-flagged practice at Silverstone
Charles Leclerc confirmed Ferrari's competitive renaissance by clocking the fastest lap ahead of championship leader Oscar Piastri of McLaren in Saturday’s third and final practice at the British Grand Prix.
In an incident-filled and closely-contested session, punctuated by red flag interventions, the Monegasque driver was quickest in one minute and 25.498 seconds to outpace Piastri by 0.068 seconds.
Four-time champion Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull ahead of Lando Norris in the second McLaren, a revived Yuki Tsunoda in the second Red Bull and British rookie Ollie Bearman of Haas.
Leclerc was the third different driver to top the times in the three practice sessions following Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Norris on Friday.
Alex Albon was seventh for Williams ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and the RB rookies Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson.
Seven-time champion Hamilton, who had been among the front-runners for Ferrari, was on a fast flying lap in the closing minutes when he was forced to abort his lap because of the first of two late red flags.
Both incidents were caused by incidents that required the track to be cleared. In the second Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto crashed, but was unhurt.
The start of the session was delayed by 10 minutes to clear some minor debris before the two Alpines and both Aston Martins initiated the fray.
On a grey and cool day, with rain threatening the drivers jostled for top spot as Leclerc reported rain at Copse corner.
The track was clearly ramping up and delivering faster lap times as Leclerc demonstrated again by outpacing Piastri by half a tenth before a late red flag, to clear a broken winglet from the circuit at Stowe, paused the action.
Hamilton had been on a flying lap at the time and was given no chance to run again as the final four minutes began, after a restart, before another red flag ended the action.
This time it came when Sauber's Bortoleto lost control at Becketts where he snapped on entry and broke his car's suspension and front wing.
In a separate incident Ollie Bearman lost his Haas and hit the barriers as he headed back to the pits.
In a tight session, the top three were separated by less than one-tenth of a second and the top 14 by less than one-tenth.
T.Evans--PI
