Formula 1 title leader Max Verstappen notionally set the fastest time during final practice for the British Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon.
Verstappen clocked a time of 1:29.902s to finish 0.375s up on Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.
Verstappen’s effort was almost four seconds slower than Lewis Hamilton’s best time during qualifying, which was held on Friday evening at Silverstone.
The time was nine-tenths of a second slower than Nikita Mazepin’s Q1 time, which was the slowest set by the 20 drivers in qualifying.
Hamilton, who will start Sprint from top spot, was eighth on the leaderboard.
Focus on long-run pace
The session evoked long-standing memories of a warm-up practice, given that teams had little reason to shoot for one-lap potential, with qualifying having already taken place.
Parc ferme conditions were applied ahead of qualifying, albeit with a handful of exemptions, meaning teams were restricted in terms of their evaluations.
Sprint will take place across 17 laps of Silverstone – effectively a third the distance of a regular grand prix – with teams having free choice of starting compound.
It is anticipated that the Medium will be favoured but Pirelli has indicated that teams could adopt an aggressive approach and use the Soft tyres.
The Soft was in effect the Medium at last season’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, which was held at Silverstone, and some drivers were able to run stints longer than 17 laps on that tyre.
The durability of the Soft will also be assisted by drivers being able to start Sprint on a lower fuel load compared to the opening stint of a regular grand prix.
It was on those tyres that drivers spent the majority of the session as they gathered data through the course of the one-hour session.
Little drama in unusual session
As per most of the grand prix weekend so far there was little in the way of incident during the course of the one-hour session.
There was just one sole yellow flag through the hour, with Valtteri Bottas having a lazy spin at Village, and only five lap times were deleted for drivers running wide at either Copse or Vale.
British Grand Prix Sprint is scheduled for 16:30 local time
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