Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton edged Kimi Raikkonen for the quickest time during final practice for Formula 1’s British Grand Prix, as Brendon Hartley suffered a sizeable crash.
Hamilton and Raikkonen traded top spot in warm and sunny conditions at Silverstone on Saturday morning, with the Ferrari driver setting rapid laps, as he dipped into the 1:26s.
Hamilton, though, responded by clocking a time of 1:26.722 – the quickest of the weekend – winding up 0.093s faster than Raikkonen, as he goes in search of a fourth straight pole position at the venue.
Neither Valtteri Bottas nor Sebastian Vettel were able to match their respective team-mates, placing third and fourth, the Finn six-tenths down on his Mercedes counterpart, and Vettel 1.1s behind his title rival.
Vettel completed only eight laps during the session and did not take part in the final minutes due to a “nuisance on his neck”, as confirmed by Ferrari.
Red Bull finished 1.2s off the pace, Max Verstappen edging Daniel Ricciardo in the battle for fifth position, the duo separated by a mere 0.006s.
The primary talking point of the session came just 14 minutes in when Hartley went off heavily into the barriers at Brooklands.
Hartley was on his first push lap in the session when the front-left suspension shattered as he braked for the left-hander at Brooklands.
Hartley’s wheel was pushed upwards and his STR13 skated across the gravel and caught some air before he slammed into the barriers on the outside of the corner.
Hartley was able to walk away from the wreckage but was given a check-up at the Medical Centre as a precaution.
The session was suspended for 13 minutes while the scene was cleared, and Toro Rosso team-mate Pierre Gasly did not run again in the session, as the team investigated the failure.
In the midfield battle, Charles Leclerc set eye-catching pace to finish seventh, just 1.4s behind Hamilton and within two-tenths of a second of both Red Bull drivers.
Aside from Leclerc, only Haas pair Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were able to get within two seconds of the time achieved by pacesetter Hamilton, as they classified eighth and ninth respectively.
Marcus Ericsson capped an encouraging session for Sauber by rounding out the top 10, in front of Force India duo Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez, with Fernando Alonso the lead McLaren driver in 13th spot.
Renault was only 14th and 15th, Nico Hulkenberg in front of Carlos Sainz Jr., while difficult weekends continued for Williams – with Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin 16th and 17th – and Stoffel Vandoorne, who was 3.2s off the pace, and nine-tenths down on Alonso, en route to 18th spot.
Gasly's early time, prior to Hartley's failure, left him 19th on the leaderboard.
Saturday’s three-part qualifying session will begin at 14:00 local time
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