» Bottas leads Hamilton in final practice

Valtteri Bottas has led a Mercedes-AMG 1-2 in final practice for the British Formula 1 Grand Prix, with the Brackley squad leading the timesheets for the first time this weekend.

The field’s final practice hit-out was vital ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session, and the much cooler track temperatures compared to Friday saw lap times tumble. The Finn posted his fastest time of 1:25.873 with 15 minutes of the session remaining to shade Hamilton, who had provisionally held top spot.

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen hustled his Honda-powered RB16 to third-fastest, but his teammate Alexander Albon was confined to the garage for much of the session while his team continued to complete repairs to his car which he had heavily crashed in Friday’s second practice session. The Anglo-Thai driver was eventually able to get out on track late in the session, clocking ten laps and finishing thirteenth-fastest.

FP2 pacesetter Lance Stroll put in a late lap to claim fourth on the timesheets, albeit over seven-tenths of a second off Bottas’ pace, while his stand-in teammate Nico Hülkenberg was a respectable ninth-fastest in the second Racing Point Mercedes.

The McLarens of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris improved relative to their Friday pace, claiming fifth and seventh, split by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

The Monégasque driver’s teammate Sebastian Vettel had further troubles. After sitting out FP1 with intercooler issues and having his FP2 session compromised by a brake pedal drama, it appeared that the latter issue reared its head again in final practice. The German finished only fourteenth-fastest.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo finished eighth-fastest, driving a new RS20 chassis after his team was forced to break curfew to build a new car for the Australian when his usual machine was found to have a hairline crack – a possible legacy of his heavy accident at the Styrian Grand Prix three weeks ago.

FORMULA 1 PIRELLI BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2020 – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 2
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11	1:25.873		19
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11	1:26.011	+ 0.138	22
3.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing RB16	1:26.173	+ 0.300	15
4.	Lance Stroll	Racing Point F1 Team RP20	1:26.576	+ 0.703	14
5.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren F1 Team MCL35	1:26.664	+ 0.791	22
6.	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari SF1000	1:26.771	+ 0.898	19
7.	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team MCL35	1:26.798	+ 0.925	23
8.	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team R.S.20	1:26.841	+ 0.968	15
9.	Nico Hülkenberg	Racing Point F1 Team RP20	1:26.872	+ 0.999	15
10.	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01	1:27.046	+ 1.173	20
11.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01	1:27.076	+ 1.203	18
12.	Esteban Ocon	Renault F1 Team R.S.20	1:27.158	+ 1.285	16
13.	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing RB16	1:27.178	+ 1.305	10
14.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF1000	1:27.251	+ 1.378	21
15.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team VF-20	1:27.537	+ 1.664	18
16.	George Russell	Williams Racing FW43	1:27.738	+ 1.865	17
17.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing C39	1:27.825	+ 1.952	16
18.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team VF-20	1:27.860	+ 1.987	15
19.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing C39	1:27.976	+ 2.103	20
20.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Racing FW43	1:28.112	+ 2.239	16