Hamilton tops FP3 as Rosberg hits more trouble

Lewis Hamilton was fastest in final practice for the British Grand Prix as Nico Rosberg was hit by more reliability problems.

With Hamilton already quickest after the hard tyre runs, Rosberg suffered a gearbox oil leak which confined him to the pits until the closing minutes of the session. Hamilton duly went out on medium tyres and became the only driver to dip in to the 1m32s with a time of 1:32.917.

Rosberg managed to emerge for one flying lap on medium tyres and ended the session second quickest but 0.552s adrift of his team-mate. It was a strong session for Mercedes as Kimi Raikkonen was the only other driver to get within a second of Hamilton's time with a 1:33.692.

Sebastian Vettel was fourth but 1.001s slower than the pace-setter, with the quadruple world champion one of many drivers to struggle through Copse, running wide at the high speed corner on his best lap.

Toro Rosso's impressive weekend continued with Max Verstappen fifth ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz in sixth. Both cars were over 1.2s off the pace but will be eyeing a spot on the third row in qualifying having achieved such a result in Spain - on a similarly high-speed circuit - four races ago.

Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were seventh and eighth respectively as Williams showed a step forward from Friday but will be disappointed to be 1.6s off the pace and beaten by the Toro Rosso pair. Williams did get itself ahead of Red Bull, however, with Daniil Kvyat ninth and Pastor Maldonado rounding out the top ten for Lotus.

McLaren's struggles continue as Fernando Alonso was only able to complete six laps in the session before a hydraulic issues forced him to end his running. Alonso finished 18th fastest ahead of the two Manor cars, while team-mate Jenson Button was 16th and it looks set to be a fight between McLaren and Sauber for the final spot in Q2.

Click here for Friday's gallery from the British Grand Prix

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