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Lewis Hamilton fastest in FP3 as midfield battle heats up

Lewis Hamilton fastest in FP3 as midfield battle heats up

08-08-2020 11:40 Last update: 12:07

Louis Shaw

Editor

Mercedes top the timesheet in a quiet FP3 session at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone. Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time with a 1.26.621 and will be feeling confident going into this afternoon's qualifying session. 

Quiet start to the session

It was a hot morning at the Silverstone track and with Pirelli bring softer rubber to the track compared to last week, many teams were worried about doing too much running as they may need fresh tyres for qualifying and tomorrow's race. 

Despite these fears, many teams got some good laps under their belt as they prepared for this afternoons qualifying session. To repeat this season's narrative, nobody could touch the two Mercedes with the two Mercs being around half a second faster than the rest of the grid. 

The soft tyre seemed to last a few more laps than it did yesterday so it will be interesting to see what happens in Q2 later on. Many drivers including Max Verstappen and the Ferraris took time out to run really slow lap times, in the 3 minutes, to try and cool the soft tyre and see how it would perform. Interestingly it was ok for a lap after two laps of cooling. 

Lando Norris enjoyed some time at the top of the timesheet and McLaren seem to have a good set up which they will hope translates into a good starting position for the race. The midfield is tight and the battle between the Renaults, Racing Points and McLarens is mouth-wateringly close. 

Nico Hulkenberg impressed, finishing the session 4th, ahead of his teammate, and will hope that he can get through to Q3 in qualifying later on today. 

At the first green light for FP3, it was Sebastian Vettel who entered the track. The two Ferraris had new engines after Vettel had an engine issue in the FP2 in Friday. 

In the first half-hour of the session, it was pretty quiet on the track. Teams were mainly busy completing the setup or driving installation laps. Only after fifteen minutes the first lap times were recorded.

Halfway through the session, the teams started driving really fast laps. Due to the high wear and tear at Silverstone, the teams were mainly busy saving the tyres, so many teams didn't spend much time on the track during the last free practice session. When everyone entered the track on the red C4, it was the Mercedes drivers who set the fastest time in the end.

Here are the times from the session: