Hamilton tops red-flagged FP3 as Ericsson crashes

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Hamilton completes his clean sweep of free practice for the British Grand Prix, as Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson triggers a red flag by crashing heavily.

The Swede went over the kerbs on the exit of Stowe Corner, which sent his C35 into a slide. Ericsson then drifted across the wet grass and hit the tyre barriers, causing significant damage to his car.

Such was the impact that his steering wheel popped out of the steering column. Ericsson was quickly out of the car and appeared to be unhurt though he was immediately attended to by the medical team.

Following an early shower, FP3 started on a damp track with drivers cautiously heading out on Pirelli’s intermediates or full-wets. It took nearly 20 minutes for Nico Rosberg, who had missed FP2 on Friday afternoon, to set the first time of the session.

Track conditions quickly improved though and Hamilton ended up beating his Friday benchmark with a 1:30.904 effort. The F1 points leader slotted into second 0.063s behind, with the Mercedes pair once again enjoying a comfortable buffer of half a second over the rest of the field.

Red Bull confirmed their strong Silverstone form, as Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen placed third and fourth respectively. The lead Ferrari of Vettel was fifth but the German will be more concerned by the gearbox issue he reported in the closing moments of the session.

William's Valtteri Bottas finished sixth ahead of McLaren-Honda's Fernando Alonso, who has consistently featured near the front in practice. Eighth was Force India's Nico Hulkenberg.

One day after being confirmed at Ferrari for 2017, Kimi Raikkonen was a quiet ninth. Carlos Sainz rounded the top 10 for Toro Rosso, ahead of Haas' Esteban Gutierrez and McLaren-Honda's Jenson Button.

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:30.904	10
02	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:30.967	18
03	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:31.488	6
04	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:31.561	7
05	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:32.049	10
06	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:32.736	15
07	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:32.754	11
08	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:32.798	14
09	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:32.833	13
10	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:32.889	10
11	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:32.895	12
12	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:33.042	11
13	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:33.344	13
14	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:33.361	13
15	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:33.440	14
16	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:33.538	10
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:33.710	10
18	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:33.769	13
19	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:34.049	10
20	Rio Haryanto	Manor	1:34.471	14
21	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:34.551	7
22	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:34.658	11