» Hamilton edges Räikkönen in final practice

The surprisingly tight British Grand Prix battle between Mercedes and Ferrari continued into Saturday’s final practice session, with crowd favourite Lewis Hamilton narrowly emerging on top of the time sheets at the end of the one-hour session.

The Englishman, who is attempting to win his home event for the fifth time on the trot, just edged out Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen on the stopwatch, with championship leader Sebastian Vettel limited to just eight laps in the session after complaining of neck pains.

The session will, however, be most remembered for a frightening crash for Brendon Hartley, who slammed head-on into the barriers at the end of the Wellington Straight after his Toro Rosso suffered a high-speed front suspension failure.

Just 15 minutes into the session, the New Zealander was preparing to attempt his first timed lap when his front left suspension sheared off the chassis while he was traveling at over 200mph. Incredibly, he was able to walk away from his battered car with little more than a shaking, but it appears unlikely his car can be repaired in time for this afternoon’s qualifying session.

Brendon Hartley, Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda STR13 - 2018 British Grand Prix

Brendon Hartley’s Toro Rosso gets airborne as he careers towards the barriers following his high-speed suspension failure.

It was a bad session for the junior Red Bull team, with Pierre Gasly finishing as the slowest of the drivers to set a time. Understandably given his teammate’s accident, the team opted to keep the Frenchman in the garage in order to understand the reason for Hartley’s spectacular failure.

Up at the front of the pack, Hamilton edged Räikkönen by just 0.093 seconds on the stopwatch. The two drivers became the first this weekend to lap in the 1m26s range, suggesting that this afternoon’s qualifying session will see the 5.891-kilometre Silverstone circuit’s lap record smashed.

Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas finished third-quickest, albeit a rather distant six-tenths of a second off the ultimate pace, while Vettel’s limited running still saw him fourth-quickest ahead of Red Bull Racing duo Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

With engine power likely to prove a major factor this weekend, all of the field’s six Ferrari-powered cars finished the session inside the top ten. The two Saubers of Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson sandwiched the two Haas Ferraris of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, with the latter getting important track time after missing out on any FP2 running yesterday thanks to his shunt in opening practice.

Qualifying gets underway at 14:00 local time (GMT +1).

FORMULA 1 2018 ROLEX BRITISH GRAND PRIX – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 3 TIMES
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1W09	1:26.722		15
2.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari SF71H	1:26.815	+ 0.093	14
3.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1W09	1:27.364	+ 0.642	17
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF71H	1:27.851	+ 1.129	8
5.	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB14	1:28.012	+ 1.290	22
6.	Daniel Ricciardo	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB14	1:28.018	+ 1.296	15
7.	Charles Leclerc	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C37	1:28.146	+ 1.424	18
8.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-18	1:28.418	+ 1.696	16
9.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-18	1:28.554	+ 1.832	18
10.	Marcus Ericsson	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C37	1:28.814	+ 2.092	17
11.	Esteban Ocon	Force India F1 Team Mercedes VJM11	1:28.917	+ 2.195	14
12.	Sergio Pérez	Force India F1 Team Mercedes VJM11	1:29.066	+ 2.344	15
13.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren F1 Team Renault MCL33	1:29.070	+ 2.348	17
14.	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team RS18	1:29.094	+ 2.372	12
15.	Carlos Sainz Jr	Renault Sport F1 Team RS18	1:29.133	+ 2.411	15
16.	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW41	1:29.829	+ 3.107	13
17.	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW41	1:29.984	+ 3.262	17
18.	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren F1 Team Renault MCL33	1:30.004	+ 3.282	17
19.	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda STR13	1:30.050	+ 3.328	4
20.	Brendon Hartley	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda STR13	no time		3