Those hopes remained intact during the opening 20 minutes of Practice Three, as Mercedes and Ferrari appeared strong, but then Verstappen emerged from his garage.
The Dutchman, who goes into tomorrow’s race with a 46-point world championship lead over team-mate Sergio Perez after winning five of the last six races, immediately went almost half a second clear of Leclerc’s leading time.
Hamilton provided further cause for optimism at Mercedes as he closed to within 0.1s of Verstappen in his significantly upgraded Silver Arrow, before Leclerc went within two hundredths of the Red Bull.
However, Verstappen would then respond with another mighty effort, as his 1:27.901 took re-established a near half-second margin.
In a further blow to Ferrari and Mercedes, Perez then went second in the closing stages to leave Red Bull looking in complete control ahead of qualifying, which is live on Sky Sports at 3pm.
“They obviously had a lot in hand, and they knew it as well, and they didn’t show it until the very end,” former F1 world champion Damon Hill said after the session.
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The biggest threat to Verstappen’s quest for pole may turn out to be the weather, with showers forecast during qualifying.
Lando Norris provided further cause for celebration amongst the throngs of British fans in attendance, with the McLaren driver sealing his place as the ‘best of the rest’ in seventh.
Valtteri Bottas was eighth for Alfa Romeo, with the Haas of Mick Schumacher and Fernando Alonso’s Alpine rounding out the top 10.
