Verstappen excels, leads TL3 of British GP and establishes himself as favorite for pole

It is not known yet if the starting grid of Formula 1 at Silverstone will be set on a wet track, but the third and final free practice for the British GP on Saturday morning (2) had a dry track for drivers trying to make up for lost time in a TL1 where there was almost no movement on the track exactly because of water. (2), had a dry track so the drivers could try to recover the time lost in TL1, where there was almost no movement on the track, exactly because of the water. In conditions closer to normal, Max Verstappen was the one who finished in the lead for Red Bull.

And it wasn't with a shadow: it was with plenty. From the moment of the first timed lap, after 20 minutes of practice, Verstappen was never threatened. He always had absolute control of the situation and only saw someone approaching when he stayed off the track for a long time. When he set a new lap, he always opened up around 0s5.

The result and the way it came about, with a flawless performance, places Max Verstappen as the great favorite for pole position in the next qualifying session. Sergio Pérez even came alongside at the end and put the other Red Bull in second position, albeit 0s410 behind. Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari, 0s447 slower.

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton put the two Mercedes W13s in sequence and ahead of Carlos Sainz, Friday's leader. Lando Norris, Valtteri Bottas, Mick Schumacher, and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top-10.

GRANDE PRÊMIO follows LIVE and IN REAL TIME all the activities of the weekend's British GP. Qualifying is scheduled for 11am (GMT-3). On Sunday, the start will also take place at 11am.

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The start of Saturday's Formula 1 race, which will conclude with the starting grid for the British GP, was reasonably sunny and, despite the low temperature, no sign of rain. The forecast is that the sky will close soon, but only time will show. Before the F1 cars on the track, Formula 3 had already made an appearance with a sprint race and victory for Isack Hadjar when he overtook Victor Martins at the end of a French battle.

With only 16ºC in temperature, the challenge for the drivers in TL3 would be to warm up the tires, especially since this was the hardest possible range of Pirelli tires on the weekend - and thus the range with the least grip.

As the clock struck 8am, Alpine rushed to get its two cars on track. Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon started on soft tyres and were soon setting fast laps. AlphaTauri sent Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda out on the hard C1 tires, and dropped out after one installation lap each. Exactly the same thing happened with Aston Martin, with Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll. Situation to warm up these tires was quite complicated.

Although Ocon and Alonso lapped fast on soft tires, the McLaren duo, Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, were better even using the medium ones. But Charles Leclerc soon appeared also on soft tires and set a lap of 1min29s452 and the first time - with Carlos Sainz right behind. It was the first lap under 1min30s on the day, but still far from Sainz's lap under 1min29s on Friday.

Sergio Pérez emerged with the second fastest time after a lap on red tires. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell did the same and came in third and fourth, ahead of Sainz. The W13 kept proving to be competitive on the Silverstone track, as it had been on Friday. After 15 minutes, Max Verstappen was still not on the clock.

Meanwhile, Ocon continued on track almost non-stop and had already clocked ten laps in practice. Despite the soft tires, the impression was that he was not doing a qualifying pace test. Leclerc, up front, in turn, had 1min29s021 as his lead lap.

It was only after the 20-minute mark that Verstappen completed a fast lap. And it was in style: the best lap of the weekend. The Dutchman achieved 1min28s541 and jumped 0s480 ahead of Leclerc while the official F1 TV broadcast showed the smiles of actor Keanu Reeves in the Aston Martin pits. James Marsden was shown in the sequence, while the English Sky Sports broadcast claimed that Tom Cruise was also somewhere on the circuit.

Positive highlight of the practice was Williams. With updates for Silverstone that excited the drivers on Friday, Alexander Albon appeared in the top-10, while Nicholas Latifi was 12th and close behind.

For Mercedes, even better than the performance was Russell's warning: "car is not jumping". Was it the dream of those involved?

Verstappen again set a new lap time and updated his lead with a 1min28s498. Leclerc was 0s362 behind and Sainz was close behind his teammate, but both behind Hamilton after 30 minutes of the session. At the halfway point, Verstappen, Hamilton, Leclerc, Sainz, Russell, Pérez, Alonso, Guanyu Zhou, Mick Schumacher and Stroll made up the top-10.

The start of the second half of practice began to show more heavy clouds in the sky, but less willingness for fast laps on the track. The track was still full, but now the tests were of a different order. The only one who took advantage of the next ten minutes to fly was Russell, who jumped up to third. Did Mercedes have more qualifying speed than Ferrari?

With just over 15 minutes on the clock, Leclerc began to show that this was probably not the case. The Monegasque ran a lap only 0s002 slower than Verstappen and was back up to second, but Max would get further ahead. With 1min27s901 he was gone again, putting almost 0s5 on Leclerc. Pérez then pulled alongside and went into second.

It would be the last of the laps for the first places. From then on, there were only car adjustments, but no new flying laps. Verstappen led the practice with Pérez in second and Leclerc in third. The one who spent the most time on the track was Stroll, owner of 23 laps.