Charles Leclerc went quickest before rain curtailed the action in Practice 3 at the British Grand Prix.
After Friday’s sunshine, cloudy skies greeted Formula 1 at Silverstone on Saturday with rain approaching from the South East.
That gave teams a window to complete some dry running with Leclerc, who missed all of FP2 with an electrical issue, going fastest ahead of Lewis Hamilton in an improved Mercedes after the opening period of flying laps.
Making the most of the dry running before the rain comes… ⛈?
Lewis P2, George P5 after our early runs on the Softs. pic.twitter.com/bpZ5sUSelO
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 8, 2023
The Monegasque was then among those to put on a fresh set of soft tyres before the weather intervened, setting a 1m27.419s to take P1.
Alex Albon continued Williams’ very impressive form in second ahead of Fernando Alonso in third after both also timed their soft tyre runs to perfection.
Pierre Gasly did likewise in fourth with Hamilton the first of those who only used one set of soft tyres in fifth.
Carlos Sainz was sixth, as Logan Sargeant backed up Williams’ pace in seventh. Max Verstappen was down in eighth after only running medium tyres on his first run.
George Russell finished ninth and Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top 10 for AlphaTauri ahead of teammate Nyck De Vries.
Lando Norris had a brief issue at the very start of FP3 after leaving the garage with an exhaust cover still attached to his McLaren.
The Briton went on to claim 12th and had some fun testing intermediates and slicks in the damp conditions late on.
Lance Stroll finished 13th, while Sergio Perez finished 14th after following the same tyre plan as his teammate.
Kevin Magnussen was 15th followed by Esteban Ocon in 16th. Oscar Piastri claimed 17th with Nico Hulkenberg stuck in an Alfa Romeo sandwich at the rear of the field.
Full results from Practice 3 can be seen below:
FP3 CLASSIFICATION (60/60 mins)
Qualifying should be mega! ?#BritishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/HRNO6i2awW
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 8, 2023