Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes back at the top of timesheets heading into qualifying but a scary crash for Brendon Hartley was the main story of final practice at the British GP.
The Kiwi would suffer a front-left suspension failure at the moment he touched the brakes on the approach to Brooklands, sliding straight into the tyre wall at high-speed and narrowly avoiding being flipping over in the gravel trap.
In an incident drawing many comparisons to Sebastien Buemi’s memorable double failure in China practice in 2010, the suspension appeared to fold inwards but fortunately, the driver is OK.
Toro Rosso also elected not to run Pierre Gasly’s again in the final hour of running as they look to discover the cause and prevent a repeat.
The accident caused a lengthy red flag but when the action did resume the final half an hour was given to low-fuel runs in preparation for qualifying.
Mercedes and Ferrari would swap positions almost every lap before Hamilton eventually finished in front with a 1m26.722s, just over a tenth off the pole time and lap record he set 12 months ago.
Kimi Raikkonen would be within a tenth in second for the Scuderia with Valtteri Bottas third.
Sebastian Vettel would not complete a full qualifying simulation in fourth, the reason being a neck strain for the German driver which he would be keen not to aggravate before qualifying and particularly the race around a high G-force track like Silverstone.
The two Red Bulls were 1.2s off the pace in fifth and sixth and for the second straight weekend may just have to watch over their shoulder as the lead midfield runners close up.
In final practice, it was Charles Leclerc in seventh for Sauber ahead of the two Haas drivers, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean. The Monegasque’s teammate Marcus Ericsson would complete the top 10 as Ferrari-powered cars dominated.
Both Force India’s are ready to strike in 11th and 12th, as once again it is Esteban Ocon with the slight advantage over Sergio Perez.
Fernando Alonso was 13th for McLaren ahead of the Renault pair, with Nico Hulkenberg, despite overheating issues, just ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz.
The gaps in this midfield section were very close too, with a second covering Leclerc in seventh to Sainz in 15th.
Lance Stroll was seven-tenths behind the Spaniard in P16, however, marginally ahead of Williams partner Sergey Sirotkin with Stoffel Vandoorne bringing up the last of the representative lap-times with both Toro Rosso’s stopping early.
Full results from the intriguing final practice session can be seen below:
