Lewis Hamilton made it three in a row as he put his Mercedes fastest in the final practice session.
The track conditions were mixed as the session started with a drying track that saw a delay to running and ended under red flag conditions, only to give the drivers five minutes of the session once the track was cleared.
The first 15 minutes of running were dedicated to the teams setting installation laps, as the track was damp from an earlier shower. Different teams tried the intermediates and full wets but agreed that the conditions were too damp for slick tyres. Nico Rosberg was the first driver to risk the conditions, setting the first timed lap on the hard compound twenty minutes into the session. His first lap time was a 1m42.634s, 11 seconds off the times being set yesterday. He managed to go even faster the lap after with a 1m36.069s, prompting Sebastian Vettel to join him out on track on the medium tyre
After the first few teams had headed out on the slick compounds it was a matter of time before the full field poured onto the track. Most teams took on the soft compound to complete qualifying simulations, some tried the medium compound before swapping to the soft but Force India focused on hard compound running.
Lewis Hamilton came out later than his teammate, instantly challenging for the fastest lap. They traded purple sectors for their first flying laps but it was Hamilton who ended up on top, 0.063 seconds up on Rosberg. All of the drivers ended the session on the soft compound of tyre, with Daniel Ricciardo putting his Red Bull third half a second behind the Mercedes pair. Max Verstappen was fourth, less than a tenth off his teammate.
Sebastian Vettel ended the session fifth but he had a gearbox issue coming around the final corner. He tried to change up to seventh gear but the car dropped him straight back down into sixth. It looks like another gearbox failure for the German after he put a new gearbox in the car for today’s running. If the Scuderia do need to change the gearbox it will be a five-place grid drop for Vettel.
McLaren broke curfew this morning as the team had been working through the night to build and deliver new pieces for the cars. One of these new bodywork updates is a new floor that is supposed to have aerodynamic advantages. The parts may have had a positive effect on the car as Fernando Alonso finished the session seventh behind Valtteri Bottas. The Spaniard was 1.850 seconds off the pace of Mercedes but only two-thousandths of a second off the Williams ahead. Jenson Button was down in 12th, 2.1 seconds down on the fastest lap.
But the battle for the bottom of the top ten is very close once again as sixth to 11th is covered by a tenth of a second. Nico Hulkenberg, Kimi Räikkönen, and Carlos Sainz Jr finished off the top 10.
Marcus Ericsson brought out the red flag with twenty minutes to go as he touched his left rear on the AstroTurf as he came out of Stowe heading towards Vale. The rear spun round and sent the Sauber driver into the tyre barrier at pit entrance, nose first, breaking all four wheels off the car and knocking the steering wheel off in the cockpit. It will be a big job for the team to get him out in time for qualifying.
