Leclerc pips Piastri in final British GP practice

Charles Leclerc topped final practice at the British Grand Prix after a red flag prevented Lewis Hamilton from completing a lap that appeared likely to put him ahead of his Ferrari teammate.

The session was suspended with a little less than 10 minutes remaining due to some stray Haas bodywork on the track, effectively locking Leclerc into top spot with a best time of 1m 25.498s.

The Monegasque headed a tight quartet of drivers representing three different constructors.

Oscar Piastri recovered strongly from his Friday struggles on the soft tire to set himself up as the lead McLaren driver, lapping just 0.068s off Leclerc’s pace.

Red Bull Racing’s recovery was even more impressive, with Max Verstappen third and just 0.087s slower than the lead Ferrari, though the Dutchman complained of brake bias problems that he described as “like a handbrake”.

Lando Norris completed the tight top four at just 0.108s off the pace.

Hamilton, however, appeared set to usurp all four of them as the last driver among the leaders to take a new set of softs in the final part of the hour.

The nine-time British Grand Prix winner set the fastest first sector of the session and a personal best in the middle split to put himself nominally 0.074 seconds ahead of Leclerc with one sector remaining.

The time was more impressive for the Briton undertaking an extra preparation lap after a mistake through Club that would have scuppered his first timed run.

Hamilton rejoined the session following the brief red flag with the same set of tires but was prevented again by another red flag, this time for Gabriel Bortoleto losing control of his car through Maggotts.

The Sauber spun backwards through the grass runoff, where a big bump appeared to break his suspension, leaving him subsequently stranded in the gravel and forcing the session to end early.

It left Hamilton in an unrepresentative 11th for the session and 0.834s down on his teammate.

Yuki Tsunoda had a better start to Saturday than he did Friday to finish fifth, albeit he was 0.606s slower than Leclerc and 0.519s slower than teammate Verstappen.

Bearman finished a crashed-out sixth after the Briton lost control of his car entering pit lane during Bortoleto’s red flag, writing off his nosecone against the barriers.

Alex Albon was seventh for Williams ahead of George Russell, who was 0.627s off the pace but lost around 0.2s to a lockup at Village on his fastest lap. The Briton, who is hopeful of his qualifying chances in the cooler overcast conditions of Saturday, committed the same mistake on his second attempt between the red flags.

Racing Bulls teammates Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson completed the top 10, Lawson after being shown the black and white flag for driving erratically in a run-in with Pierre Gasly.

Hamilton was 11th ahead of Carlos Sainz, Esteban Ocon and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, all within one second of Leclerc’s benchmark.

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg was 1.001s adrift in 15th ahead of crashed-out teammate Bortoleto.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were an underwhelming 17th and 19th, sandwiching Franco Colapinto in 18th.

Gasly lamented that improved balance didn’t translate into better grip on his way to 20th and 2.38s off the pace.

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