» 2013 British GP: Mercedes power through FP3

Mercedes once again flexed their muscles and finished on top of the time sheets at the conclusion of final practice for the British Grand Prix, with Nico Rosberg once again leading the charge.

There were a few slip ups and mistakes throughout practice as drivers had to adapt to the rising temperatures of the track, which escalated seven degrees by sessions end.

Sergio Perez found himself sitting in the garage for most of the session, as his left rear tyre burst on his McLaren at the exit of Copse, causing the red flag to appear just 15 minutes into the session.

Speculations around the paddock were that it was another delamination, as the new tyres still aren’t being used throughout a full race weekend.

Perez could count himself lucky as the damage from the shredded rubber was isolated to the floor, rather than damaging some of the car’s internals.

Lotus remained persistent with their passive DRS and kept it running on Kimi Raikkonen’s car. The Finn finished down the order in eighth, three places behind teammate Romain Grosjean, who was not running passive DRS. However, there were thoughts that Lotus could be sandbagging a touch to hide the true benefit the passive DRS system brings.

Ferrari still haven’t found the pace required to keep up with rivals Mercedes and Red Bull, as Fernando Alonso could only manage seventh position. Teammate Felipe Massa struggled to set a decent lap time after his incident yesterday and was way down the field in 15th. The Brazilian is also facing another engine change, which will be his fourth this season.

Despite going second-fastest, Lewis Hamilton was feeling unsettled during the session, complaining the car was vibrating and sliding off the track.

Even though it wasn’t qualifying, the Toro Rosso boys were out to prove their worth, constantly bettering each other’s times. Daniel Ricciardo put his STR8 in sixth place with teammate Jean-Eric Vergne further down in 11th.

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber had strong outings for Red Bull Racing, although Vettel didn’t get too many flying laps in, as the team spent more than half the session aero testing.

The Force Indias rounded up the top ten, with Adrian Sutil in ninth and Di Resta, four one hundredths of a second behind in tenth.

2013 British Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 3 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:31.487		18
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:31.633	+ 0.146	20
3.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:32.037	+ 0.550	20
4.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:32.078	+ 0.591	17
5.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:32.391	+ 0.904	18
6.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:32.440	+ 0.953	19
7.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:32.454	+ 0.967	18
8.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:32.459	+ 0.972	22
9.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:32.536	+ 1.049	17
10.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:32.571	+ 1.084	17
11.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:32.580	+ 1.093	15
12.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:32.926	+ 1.439	18
13.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault FW35	1:33.133	+ 1.646	17
14.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:33.225	+ 1.738	16
15.	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:33.273	+ 1.786	16
16.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault FW35	1:33.309	+ 1.822	25
17.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:33.370	+ 1.883	19
18.	Sergio Pérez	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:33.607	+ 2.120	9
19.	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault CT03	1:34.971	+ 3.484	18
20.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:34.990	+ 3.503	17
21.	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:36.694	+ 5.207	16
22.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault CT03	1:37.443	+ 5.956	18