Valtteri Bottas outpaced championship leader Lewis Hamilton to top the times as Mercedes led the way in Saturday’s final free practice for Sunday’s British Grand Prix.
The Finn, who
started from pole position for last year’s race, edged out the six-time world
champion, who is seeking a record-extending seventh win in his home event, by
0.138 seconds.
After Friday’s
extraordinary heat, conditions at the fourth Grand Prix of the 2020 season
reverted to those of a more traditional British summer’s day and saw the
champion team return to their customary 1-2 positions.
Max Verstappen was
third fastest for Red Bull, three-tenths off the pace, ahead of Friday’s
pace-setter Lance Stroll of Racing Point, Carlos Sainz of McLaren and Ferrari’s
Charles Leclerc.
Lando Norris was
seventh in the second McLaren ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, running a new Renault
chassis, Nico Hulkenberg who is replacing coronavirus victim Sergio Perez in
the second Racing Point and Pierre Gasly of Alpha Tauri.
On a notably cooler
and overcast morning, the air temperature having fallen from 35 degrees Celsius
to 19, Vettel was first out in his Ferrari before his lap time was trimmed by
his 2021 successor Sainz.
In the much-changed
conditions, with a switch in wind direction too, car behaviour and performance
had altered significantly and it was not long before Mercedes found their
rhythm.
The champions had
struggled in Friday’s sweltering heat, but 20 minutes into FP3 they were back
on top with Bottas and then Hamilton leading the way, both lapping inside
Stroll’s best time from the opening day.
Bottas responded to
his team-mate with 15 minutes to go when he lapped in 1:25.873 shortly before
Alexander Albon finally made it out on track in the final flurry of action, but
ran off track briefly.
Albon, the
London-born Thai driver who crashed heavily on Friday, had suffered a further
setback when his newly-repaired Red Bull was detained for electrical system
refinements.
