Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Silverstone, 2020

Bottas leads Mercedes one-two as fault delays Albon

2020 British Grand Prix third practice

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Valtteri Bottas set the practice pace ahead of qualifying for the British Grand Prix.

He headed Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton in a one-two for the team, the pair separated by two tenths of a second at the top of the times sheets. Hamilton backed out of his final flying attempt on soft tyres after a mistake in Becketts.

Max Verstappen led Mercedes’ opposition, his best effort exactly three-tenths of a second slower than Bottas’s. However he reported an unusual “shattering” sensation from his front-left wheel in the quickest of Silverstone’s many fast corners.

However team mate Alexander Albon, who missed part of yesterday’s second practice session following a crash, managed just a handful of laps in the final hour before qualifying. An electrical problem with his Honda power unit confined him to the pits until the final 10 minutes, and once he finally joined the track one of his first lap times was deleted due to a track limits infringement.

Lance Stroll moved up to fourth place when the Racing Point drivers took to the track for their final flying efforts in the closing minutes. He and new team mate Nico Hulkenberg matched each other through the first two sectors, but Stroll was decisively quicker in the final, slower part of the lap.

The two pink cars were separated by the McLarens – Carlos Sainz Jnr the quicker of the pair – plus Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and Daniel Ricciardo in his repaired Renault. Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri completed the top 10.

Track conditions were considerably cooler than they had been on Friday. Alfa Romeo, who seemed to thrive in yesterday’s hot temperatures, fell towards the bottom of the times. It didn’t help matters that Kimi Raikkonen lost time when he caught his team mate at the end of the lap, prompting an unimpressed radio message from the 2007 champion.

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Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
177Valtteri BottasMercedes1’25.87318
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’26.0110.13821
333Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’26.1730.30015
418Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’26.5760.70313
555Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’26.6640.79122
616Charles LeclercFerrari1’26.7710.89819
74Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’26.7980.92522
83Daniel RicciardoRenault1’26.8410.96815
927Nico HulkenbergRacing Point-Mercedes1’26.8720.99915
1010Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda1’27.0461.17319
1126Daniil KvyatAlphaTauri-Honda1’27.0761.20318
1231Esteban OconRenault1’27.1581.28516
1323Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda1’27.1781.3059
145Sebastian VettelFerrari1’27.2511.37821
158Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’27.5371.66417
1663George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’27.7381.86516
1799Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’27.8251.95216
1820Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’27.8601.98715
197Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’27.9762.10319
206Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1’28.1122.23915

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Third practice visual gaps

Valtteri Bottas – 1’25.873

+0.138 Lewis Hamilton – 1’26.011

+0.300 Max Verstappen – 1’26.173

+0.703 Lance Stroll – 1’26.576

+0.791 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’26.664

+0.898 Charles Leclerc – 1’26.771

+0.925 Lando Norris – 1’26.798

+0.968 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’26.841

+0.999 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’26.872

+1.173 Pierre Gasly – 1’27.046

+1.203 Daniil Kvyat – 1’27.076

+1.285 Esteban Ocon – 1’27.158

+1.305 Alexander Albon – 1’27.178

+1.378 Sebastian Vettel – 1’27.251

+1.664 Romain Grosjean – 1’27.537

+1.865 George Russell – 1’27.738

+1.952 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’27.825

+1.987 Kevin Magnussen – 1’27.860

+2.103 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’27.976

+2.239 Nicholas Latifi – 1’28.112

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Valtteri BottasMercedes1’28.5191’27.4311’25.873-1.55877
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’27.8961’27.5811’26.011-1.5775
3Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’27.4221’28.3901’26.173-1.24965
4Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’28.0041’27.2741’26.576-0.69864
5Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’28.9881’27.8201’26.664-1.15681
6Charles LeclercFerrari1’28.2211’27.5701’26.771-0.79971
7Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’28.9901’28.1691’26.798-1.37170
8Daniel RicciardoRenault1’28.5751’28.1121’26.841-1.27167
9Nico HulkenbergRacing Point-Mercedes1’28.5921’27.9101’26.872-1.03866
10Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda1’28.9091’27.9971’27.046-0.95174
11Daniil KvyatAlphaTauri-Honda1’28.8681’28.4261’27.076-1.3568
12Esteban OconRenault1’28.5591’28.2191’27.158-1.06177
13Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda1’28.1291’27.3641’27.178-0.18646
14Sebastian VettelFerrari1’28.8601’27.251-1.60946
15Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’29.5761’28.5641’27.537-1.02769
16George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’29.8991’28.7711’27.738-1.03365
17Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’29.9251’28.2561’27.825-0.43164
18Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’29.5321’28.8981’27.860-1.03865
19Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’29.7461’28.1591’27.976-0.18378
20Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1’30.7031’29.9581’28.112-1.84670

2020 British Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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7 comments on “Bottas leads Mercedes one-two as fault delays Albon”

  1. I think Bottas will be on pole. He’s just plain faster than his teammate in the dry over 1 lap. Maybe age is catching up to Hamilton but certainly he’s not the Hamilton of the past that’s for sure.

  2. The visual gap chart says a lot about chasis and drivers.
    Max, Charles, Daniel are really are really good drivers.

    1. Tbh their team mates got massive hardware issues. Lets judge in qualy. Especially Vettel has had a truly terrible weekend.

  3. Hulk doing a very solid job! Nice!
    I am looking forward to qualifying. Hope the McLaren’s can beat the copycats. Hope Hulk can beat the billion dollar boy.

    1. It would be a tall task for Hulk driving a totally new car, but I sincerely hope it happens.
      Gotta say though, the billion dollar boy has some speed.

    2. Lance has been doing very well this year so far & it would be wrong to not give him the due credit. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hope Hulk beats him in qualifying though, especially (I seriously doubt it… the car is good & Lance has been making the most of it… Rob Wilson’s a top coach) but I don’t think it’s that long a shot for Hulk to finish ahead in the race. His experience could well be the deciding factor.

      1. I luv chicken
        1st August 2020, 13:34

        or Hulk could stay true to form, and just throw away a good position.

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