Charles Leclerc topped the timesheets in a stop-start Free Practice 3 session at Silverstone ahead of qualifying for the 2025 British Grand Prix, while Racing Bulls duo Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson continued to show solid pace.
The session got off to a slightly delayed start, pushed back by five minutes due to a build-up of rubber marbles around the circuit.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was first out and set the initial benchmark of 1:28.552 on soft tyres. His teammate Franco Colapinto quickly shaved a few hundredths off that, going 0.034s faster.
Gasly wasn’t particularly happy with the balance, reporting over the radio that there was “still no grip” despite setup changes.
Lewis Hamilton put Ferrari on top early with a 1:27.351 before going quicker again on his next lap with a 1:26.529.
Lance Stroll briefly slotted into second on medium tyres, a full second off Hamilton’s time, before Charles Leclerc went quickest with a 1:26.494.
Max Verstappen wasn’t far behind, ending up just five thousandths of a second off Leclerc’s pace. George Russell, running for Mercedes, went fourth fastest at this point, while Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda sat eighth, just under a second off the front.
A handful of drivers, including Stroll, Bearman, Albon, Alonso, Sainz, and Ocon, spent the opening part of the session running on medium tyres.
Racing Bulls teammates Hadjar and Lawson spent most of the session evaluating the hard compound for long-run data. With around 35 minutes to go, Hadjar was 11th and Lawson 15th, both around a second off Leclerc’s time, which had been set on softs.
Leclerc later improved again to a 1:25.922, opening a two-tenth margin over Verstappen. Russell jumped up to second, splitting the pair and going 0.203s off the Ferrari’s new benchmark.
With 17 minutes left, the McLarens found pace, Lando Norris briefly went fastest before Oscar Piastri went quicker still, edging his teammate by 0.040s with a 1:25.566. Verstappen responded with purple in sector one and went second, just 0.019s shy of Piastri. The top three were split by only 0.040s.
Hadjar and Lawson switched to softs late for a qualifying simulation. Hadjar jumped from 16th to 9th, with Lawson right behind in 10th, just a tenth between them. Lawson’s soft-tyre run was limited to one flying lap before a red flag came out for debris from Bearman’s Haas, cutting short their momentum.
The session resumed with just three minutes left on the clock, but another red flag soon followed. Gabriel Bortoleto spun off at high speed, breaking his front suspension on a bump in the grass and ending up beached in the gravel.
Meanwhile, Bearman also crashed on entry to the pit lane, locking up on cold brakes and hitting the barriers. He lost part of his front wing and was later noted for a red flag infringement.
Leclerc ended the session fastest with a 1:25.498. Piastri finished just 0.068s behind in second, with Verstappen third, 0.087s off the top. Norris, Tsunoda, Bearman, Albon, Russell, Hadjar and Lawson rounded out the top ten, all covered by just over seven tenths.
While their soft-tyre runs were disrupted, the Racing Bulls pairing made the most of limited opportunities. Hadjar finished 9th and Lawson 10th, both comfortably inside the top 10 and looking competitive heading into qualifying which gets underway in just under two hours time.
Header Image: Clive Rose/Getty Images via Red Bull Content Pool
