FP3: Hamilton P1 as Ericsson suffers huge shunt

Editor

Lewis Hamilton claimed a practice hat-trick at Silverstone as he set the pace in FP3, a session that was red flagged for a hard crash for Marcus Ericsson.

The Sauber driver suffered a high-speed crash as he lost it on the kerbs coming out of Stowe.

That sent him across the track and into the inside barrier nose first. The impact swung the car around and Ericsson hit with the side and rear before sliding back half onto the track.

It was a huge shunt, so much so that Ericsson’s steering wheel came off, but he was able to climb unaided from the car.

Minutes earlier Hamilton had set the pace on his soft tyre run, clocking a 1:31.234 as he was purple in the second and third sectors. Nico Rosberg was second, 0.097s.

The session restarted with five minutes remaining resulting in a huge surge as the drivers all ventured out on the soft tyres for qualifying sims.

Hamilton upped his pace to a 1:30.904, Rosberg went second 0.063s down and Max Verstappen slotted into third place only to be pipped by his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo a minute later.

A 1:31.488 for Ricciardo and a 1:31.561 for Sebastian Vettel. The Ferrari driver was angry after putting in his timed lap and reported: “I think we failed the gearbox again.”

Valtteri Bottas was sixth ahead of Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg and Kimi Raikkonen. Carlos Sainz completed the top ten, 1.985s off the pace.

Times
1  Lewis Hamilton  Mercedes 1’30.904 10 laps
2  Nico Rosberg  Mercedes 1’30.967 +0.063 18 laps
3  Daniel Ricciardo  Red Bull 1’31.488 +0.584 6 laps
4  Max Verstappen  Red Bull 1’31.561 +0.657 7 laps
5  Sebastian Vettel  Ferrari 1’32.049 +1.145 10 laps
6  Valtteri Bottas  Williams 1’32.736 +1.832 14 laps
7  Fernando Alonso  McLaren 1’32.754 +1.850 10
8  Nico Hulkenberg  Force India 1’32.798 +1.894 13 laps
9  Kimi Raikkonen  Ferrari 1’32.833 +1.929 12 laps
10  Carlos Sainz Jr.  Toro Rosso 1’32.889 +1.985 9 laps
11  Esteban Gutierrez  Haas 1’32.895 +1.991 11 laps
12  Jenson Button  McLaren 1’33.042 +2.138 10 laps
13  Romain Grosjean  Haas 1’33.344 +2.440 12 laps
14  Sergio Perez  Force India 1’33.361 +2.457 12 laps
15  Felipe Massa  Williams 1’33.440 +2.536 13 laps
16  Daniil Kvyat  Toro Rosso 1’33.538 +2.634 9 laps
17  Felipe Nasr  Sauber 1’33.710 +2.806 9 laps
18  Jolyon Palmer  Renault 1’33.769 +2.865 12 laps
19  Kevin Magnussen  Renault 1’34.049 +3.145 9 laps
20  Rio Haryanto  Manor 1’34.471 +3.567 13 laps
21  Marcus Ericsson  Sauber 1’34.551 +3.647 7 laps
22  Pascal Wehrlein  Manor 1:34.658 +3.754 11 laps