FP2: Verstappen leads Ferraris in final practice at Silverstone before this afternoon's F1 Sprint

The final practice session of the 2021 British Grand Prix weekend saw Max Verstappen lead the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz on the time sheets, as the drivers completed their final preparations before the inaugural F1 Sprint event.

More than 100,000 fans are expected to descend on Silverstone today for the first ever F1 Sprint - a 100km, 17 lap dash at 1630 local time, which will set the grid for Sunday's Grand Prix.

READ MORE: 6 things we learned from Friday’s on-track action at Silverstone

With the Sprint in mind, teams began with long-run simulations in FP2 as FP1 and qualifying took place on Friday, and this is the final practice session of the weekend and the last chance the drivers have to finalise their race setups. Verstappen set the pace on medium tyres with a time of 1m20.902s, 0.375s clear out front.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz both start in the top 10 for the Sprint and ran split strategies in FP2, finishing second and third fastest respectively – split by nearly three tenths.

Alpine's Esteban Ocon starts 13th for the Sprint but took fourth in FP2, beating Red Bull's Sergio Perez – who finished fifth in practice and also starts fifth this afternoon.

In qualifying, the McLaren drivers were split by just 0.002s as Lando Norris took sixth for the Sprint ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. In FP2, Norris finished sixth and Daniel Ricciardo seventh – but this time they were split by 0.004s.

READ MORE: The 2021 Sprint Qualifying Grid

Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas finished ninth on hard tyres with a visor tear-off stuck in his car midway through the session. He was five-hundredths of a second behind team mate Lewis Hamilton, eighth, in FP2, and also suffered a late spin after the chequered flag had flown. Hamilton will start P1 for the Sprint, however, after his superb lap in qualifying on Friday evening.

That left AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly to round out the top 10, finishing ahead of Williams' George Russell (P11), who yesterday lit up the Silverstone crowd with a stunning drive to P8 in qualifying. Gasly's team mate Yuki Tsunoda took 16th while Russell's team mate Nicholas Latifi was 15th.

Alpine's Fernando Alonso split the Alfa Romeos: Antonio Giovinazzi 12th and Kimi Raikkonen 14th in FP2.

Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel took 17th ahead of team mate Lance Stroll in P18, the two split by half a second.

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The Haas drivers headed out first but rounded out the standings, Nikita Mazepin 1.5s ahead of last-place Mick Schumacher.

F1 Sprint follows at 1630 and you won't want to miss a minute of the action of this all-new format. Join us for live coverage and up to date reaction throughout the day.