Eifel GP: Valtteri Bottas leads Lewis Hamilton’s third practice

F1 weekend finally begins at Nurburgring after Friday’s failure; Bottas leads Mercedes one-two, but Stroll is unwell and could be replaced by Hulkenberg

Valtteri Bottas edged out Lewis Hamilton in the only practice session before qualifying for the Eifel GP, as improving weather conditions led to a busy Saturday morning at the Nurburgring.

After the fog on Friday caused the cancellation of the two opening practice sessions, the P3 took on added importance and led to a predictably busy session as the teams concentrated their preparation work for qualifying and the race on the session of one hour.

And Bottas, the winner of the race last time in Russia, entered the pace faster than anyone else on the stopwatch and edged Hamilton by just over a tenth of a second with a best lap of 1: 26.225.

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Nicholas Latifi spins in the last corner during practice at the Nurburgring.

Hamilton’s best lap came just at the end of the session on used soft tires, and he was delayed to the end of an earlier lap when Williams’ Nicholas Latifi spun into the final corner.

Ferrari has rarely been anywhere near the top of the timesheets this season, but surprisingly finished with both of its cars in the top five, with Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel splitting Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Vettel had spun his Ferrari before.

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Sebastian Vettel turns into turn thirteen during practice three at the Nurburgring.

But there was only one Racing Point car on the field with Lance Stroll who was not feeling 100% fit and was not participating in the session.

The Canadian will now be evaluated before qualifying at 2 p.m., but, in a replay of his call at 11 o’clock to replace Sergio Pérez at Silverstone two months ago, Nico Hulkenberg arrived at the Nurburgring and is ready to take the Stroll place if 21 year old is deemed unfit to compete

Pérez finished seventh on the P3 timesheets in the only Racing Point car, just behind McLaren’s Lando Norris, who enjoyed an impressive session.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo led the timesheets early in the session, but fell to eighth at the end of qualifying simulations, ahead of Alex Albon in the second Red Bull and Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri.

George Russell also took a wild turn on the grass as he exited the final chicane in his Williams, but the young Briton avoided barriers and continued his session.