Bottas also within a tenth; Session ends with persistent rain falling
Tuesday 18 July 2017 12:05, UK
Lewis Hamilton just edged out Sebastian Vettel in final practice for the British GP as Ferrari closed the gap to Mercedes.
Less than a tenth of a second split the two world championship leaders as Ferrari quelled the dominance Mercedes had boasted in Friday practice.
Valtteri Bottas was also within a tenth of Hamilton's benchmark but Kimi Raikkonen was a distant fourth.
The session was held in cold, blustery and damp conditions before steady rain started to fall in the closing stages - prompting all the field to switch to intermediate tyres in anticipation of similar conditions in qualifying.
But the gloom hanging over the circuit all morning didn't deter Hamilton from setting a new fastest lap ever recorded at Silverstone in its current layout before Vettel suddenly sparkled - metaphorically and literally - as he found an extra second of pace compared to Friday when the Scuderia are thought to have run their newly-updated engine on reduced power.
Hamilton's benchmark was also half a second faster than the quickest time set by Bottas when the Finn topped Friday's timesheets.
Both Bottas and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo will be hit with five-place grid penalties for unscheduled gearbox changes while McLaren's Fernando Alonso will start last after yet more engine-related demotions.
All the TV times and ways to watch this weekend's race live on Sky F1.
Nico Hulkenberg was fifth quickest but nearly 1.5 seconds adrift of the leading runners - underlining the scale of Mercedes and Ferrari's advantage over the rest of the field.
Max Verstappen was only eighth, almost two seconds shy of Hamilton, but set his fastest lap on the slower soft tyres.
Qualifying takes place at 1pm - with more rain forecast.
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