Leclerc Tops Final Practice for the British Grand Prix, Marked by Incidents
Charles Leclerc, at the wheel of his Ferrari, dominated the last practice session of the British Grand Prix, which was interrupted by a red flag. Leclerc set a time of 1:25.498, beating Oscar Piastri by 0.068 seconds, who finished in second place. Max Verstappen, for his part, was only 0.019 seconds behind Piastri.
The session was affected by several incidents. Gabriel Bortoleto, from Sauber, ended up in the gravel with damaged suspension after a spin, which forced the session to be stopped a few minutes before the end. Previously, a red flag also interrupted the practice due to a detachment from the car of Oliver Bearman, rookie driver for Haas.The final red flag prevented the drivers from improving their times, including Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari, who finished in eleventh position. Hamilton had shown promising pace in the first two sectors before being forced to abort his lap due to the red flag caused by the remains of Bearman’s car on the track.
Lando Norris of McLaren placed fourth, followed by Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull. Alex Albon achieved the seventh-best time for Williams, ahead of George Russell of Mercedes, Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls, and Liam Lawson, completing the top ten.
Aston Martin reported that none of its drivers could complete a representative lap on the soft tires due to the red flags.
The qualifying for Sunday’s race, Hamilton’s first home race with Ferrari, will take place later in the afternoon.
