Third practice at Silverstone
Verstappen in front – the fear of rain and wind
The last 60 minutes before qualifying at 5pm CET (TV live). And a normal question at Silverstone: is the rain coming? But the drivers mainly complain regarding the gusts of wind from all directions. Fastest: Verstappen ahead of Pérez and Leclerc – 8th Bottas.
Published: 2:22 p.m
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Updated: 3:46 p.m
On Friday was the whole first training (Bottas before Hamilton) for the cat. The second training (Sainz before Hamilton) brought the first insights. Nevertheless, Aston Martin-Mercedes then asked its two pilots Stroll and Vettel to work a night shift in the simulator! Well, the factory buildings are only 800 meters away.
Zhou once more in the top ten finals?
From the perspective of the race engineers, Silverstone is the third start of the season following Bahrain and Barcelona. Only in Spain was the list of new parts even longer. Next step away from this expensive game: Haas-Ferrari. Magnussen’s good start with 15 points in the first four races is over – and Schumi has been waiting for a sense of achievement for 30 races.
After many defects (always through no fault of his own), the Chinese Zhou was finally able to prove his talent at Alfa-Sauber. Will he make it back into the top ten in the time hunt?
Latifi, Alonso, Ricciardo …
In the third practice session, Zhou was at the front right from the start and was even faster than Bottas at the beginning. The people from Hinwil will probably no longer have to worry regarding drivers for 2023.
Alpine (Alonso), McLaren (Ricciardo) and Williams (Latifi) have three drivers further on the short blacklist. But surprises must always be expected in Formula 1.
Piquet slides once more
Incidentally, further statements by Nelson Piquet (69) from his podcast last November have appeared on the Internet. Why now?
After Hamilton, the three-time world champion from Brazil is apparently going following the achievements and private lives of Keke and Nico Rosberg as well as Nigel Mansell. Regardless, Piquet has lost his paddock pass.
Even if Max Verstappen defends his future father-in-law in Hamilton’s racism case: “Everyone has to get a second chance in life, maybe not a third!”
Brits are crazy regarding racing
The Dutch world champion took the lead at the halfway point in practice three – 0.102 ahead of former rival Hamilton! Then Leclerc and Sainz in the Ferrari, Russell, Pérez, Alonso, Ocon, Bottas and Zhou.
In the packed grandstands (315,000 fans came to the British GP over the four days of 2021), the cheering got even bigger 15 minutes before the end. George Russell had lined up behind Verstappen and Hamilton.
The 3 top teams in front!
Then the former world championship leader Leclerc gave a sign of life in the Ferrari – second place. But Verstappen had clearly set himself apart with a magical 1:27 lap.
In the last few minutes it was relatively quiet. Pérez was second to within 0.4 seconds of his Red Bull-Honda team-mate. Then Leclerc, Russell, Hamilton and Sainz. So the three top teams together. Then Norris, Bottas, Schumi and Alonso.