Ferrari send Red Bull WARNING as rapid Charles Leclerc tops FP3, Alex Albon stars again

Leclerc in FP3 op Silverstone — Photo: © LAT Images

British Grand Prix

Ferrari send Red Bull WARNING as rapid Leclerc tops FP3, Albon stars again

Leclerc missed FP2 but bounced back to set the fastest lap of the weekend in FP3

Joe Ellis

Saturday 8 July 2023 13:34 Updated: 18:58

Charles Leclerc recovered from missing the entirety of FP2 to top the final practice session at the British GP.

The Monegasque got plenty of laps in early in the hour's running to make up for lost time, and showed off his Silverstone prowess to do the fastest lap of the weekend.

Alex Albon was the star of the show on Friday with two third places but he went one better on Saturday morning, ending second of those who managed to get a qualifying simulation in.

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Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton completed a jumbled top five while Zhou Guanyu failed to put any laps on the board as Alfa Romeo tried to fix a charging issue on his car.

Schumacher night shift pays off for Mercedes

Mercedes endured a dismal Friday at Silverstone, with neither driver making it into the top 10 at the end of FP2.

Mick Schumacher was therefore sent on the night shift at Brackley and was seen still behind the wheel of the simulator at 2:15am on Saturday morning.

Whatever the German had been trying seemed to work for the Silver Arrows as Hamilton and George Russell were much more competitive compared to Aston Martin, who they are expected to battle this weekend.

Rain ruins the fun

Everyone was just starting to get into qualifying simulations when the typical British weather threw a curveball into the mix, soaking the track.

The likes of Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and many of the midfield runners didn't get a proper run in on soft tyres before the rain which could hamper their qualifying efforts.

It is extra worrying for Red Bull after seeing Leclerc and Sainz show impressive speed over one lap for Ferrari.

There was still more running on the intermediate tyres after the downpour but it was understandably nowhere near the best lap times.