Hamilton tops red-flagged FP3 as Ericsson crashes

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.

AS IT HAPPENED: FP3 for the British Grand Prix

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