British GP: Hamilton sets blistering FP3 pace

The Mercedes driver, who was unhappy with the handling of his car yesterday, set the pace with a lap of 1:32.917, set near the end of the session with the medium tyres.

Hamilton outpaced teammate Nico Rosberg by over half a second, after the German lost some time due to problems with his car's gearbox.

Kimi Raikkonen was third for Ferrari, with teammate Sebastian Vettel in fourth, but over a second off Hamilton's pace.

Toro Rosso continued to show strong form, with Max Verstappen completing the top five ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz. The sister Red Bull cars of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat finished in 12th and ninth places respectively.

Williams driver Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were seventh and eighth, with the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado completing the top 10.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso finished down in 18th position after just six laps, the Spaniard not even running with the softer tyres after reportedly suffering hydraulic issues.

The story of the session

The running began under cloudy skies, with the track temperature down to 26 degrees Celsius following yesterday's heat.

Raikkonen put his Ferrari on top early on as the drivers assessed the track conditions with the harder of the Pirelli tyre compounds.

Romain Grosjean set a new benchmark moments later, the times still far from yesterday's best, with Alonso taking P1 briefly before Massa moved to the top spot with a 1:35.460.

Bottas relegated his teammate to second after going nearly four tenths of a second quicker, before Vettel became the first man to dip into the 1m34s to put the Ferrari back on top.

The Mercedes and the Red Bull drivers were the last one to complete a timed lap, with Rosberg and Hamilton going out 20 minutes into the session following their installation lap early on.

Rosberg needed just two laps to put his Mercedes in first place, the German setting a new benchmark with a 1:34.436, still using the hard tyres.

That did not last long, however, as Hamilton beat his teammate's time by 0.037s, much to the delight of the crowd.

But Rosberg was far from done, and he set the fastest time of weekend so far with a lap of 1:33.731, over six tenths of a second quicker than Hamilton.

The world champion reacted right away, however, and put himself back in first place with a blistering lap of 1:33.333, putting the Mercedes over a second clear of its closest rival.

Rosberg then suffered a problem with his gearbox, but his mechanics managed to correct it quickly and the German did not lose much time and got back out with enough time to run again.

The medium tyres made their appearance with the top runners with less than 10 minutes of the session left, and Hamilton put them to good use right away, setting a new best with a 1:32.917.

British GP 2015 - Free Practice 3

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
01	L. Hamilton	Mercedes	1:32.917		18
02	N. Rosberg	Mercedes	1:33.469	+0.552	14
03	K. Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:33.692	+0.775	20
04	S. Vettel	Ferrari	1:33.918	+1.001	17
05	M. Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:34.147	+1.230	20
06	C. Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:34.282	+1.365	23
07	F. Massa	Williams	1:34.501/td>	+1.584	19
08	V. Bottas	Williams	1:34.538	+1.621	19
09	D. Kvyat	Red Bull	1:34.545	+1.628	16
10	P. Maldonado	Lotus	1:34.708	+1.791	25
11	N. Hulkenberg	Force India	1:34.888	+1.969	21
12	D. Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:34.896	+1.979	15
13	S. Perez	Force India	1:35.121	+2.204	22
14	R. Grosjean	Lotus	1:35.646	+2.329	22
15	F. Nasr	Sauber	1:35.587	+2.670	19
16	J. Button	McLaren	1:35.695	+2.778	19
17	M. Ericsson	Sauber	1:35.919	+3.002	20
18	F. Alonso	McLaren	1:36.101	+3.184	6
19	W. Stevens	Manor	1:37.989	+5.072	19
20	R. Merhi	Manor	1:38.285	+5.368	18