British GP: Bottas pips Hamilton as Mercedes lead final practice

Mercedes have reasserted themselves at the top of the timesheet, with Valtteri Bottas leading a one-two in final practice for the British Grand Prix.

As the extreme heat from Friday dissipated, the German manufacturer immediately upped the pace with both Bottas and Lewis Hamilton setting the fastest times of the weekend with their first flying lap.

Red Bull waited until before the half-hour mark to hit the track with Verstappen moving up to third and in contention, just a quarter of a second behind the world champion’s initial benchmark.

There was trouble for teammate Alex Albon however, as an apparent ERS issue kept the Thai in the garage.

The midfield began bunching up behind, with McLaren, Ferrari and Racing Point all looking close over a single lap.

Nico Hulkenberg also appeared much more settled as he closed to just half a tenth behind Lance Stroll after the first run.

When the second set of soft tyres were bolted on, Bottas dropped into the high 1m25s, edging closer to his pole time from last year.

Hamilton’s first lap was spoiled by a wiggle in the first part of Becketts, but improvements on his second and third lap saw the Briton just over a tenth slower than his teammate in P2.

Verstappen also improved to be three-tenths behind the Finn in third as he continued to shadow Mercedes.

Stroll jumped up to fourth in the closing minutes to lead Sainz, Leclerc, Norris, Ricciardo and Hulkenberg in a group of cars covered by just three-tenths of a second.

Pierre Gasly set an impressive medium tyre time initially but didn’t make much improvement on the soft as he completed the top 10 for AlphaTauri.

Albon would get on track for nine laps in the Red Bull but could do no better than 13th fastest.

While Sebastian Vettel was down in 14th as his difficult weekend continued, even having a repeat of his loose brake pedal from Friday though he didn’t lose as much time in the garage.

So Mercedes has the edge once again but Verstappen is just about in the picture looking ahead to qualifying and some will be keeping an eye on the sky too with rain showers not ruled out this afternoon.

Full results from final practice can be seen below: