COTA, FP3: Vettel bounces back in final practice

Raikkonen 2nd, Hamilton 3rd

By Franck Drui

20 October 2018 - 21:10
COTA, FP3: Vettel bounces back in (...)

Sebastian Vettel set the quickest time of the final practice session for the United States Grand Prix, outpacing Ferrari team-mate Kimi Räikkönen by less than a tenth of a second as championship leader Lewis Hamilton finished third.

On Friday, Vettel’s hopes of maintain a fragile title challenge were hit when he incurred a three-place grid penalty for failing to slow sufficiently during a red flag period, but he bounced back this morning as F1’s teams finally got some dry running at the Circuit of the Americas.

Ferrari focused its attention on the ultrasoft tyre during the one-hour session and after the early pace was set by Räikkönen with a time of 1:34.419, Vettel took over at the top of the timesheet with a time of 1:33.797, displacing Räikkönen who dropped to P2 with a lap of 1:33.843.

Of the likely front runners Ferrari were alone in running the ultrasofts in the early part of the session, with both Mercedes and Red Bull concentrating on longer runs on the supersoft compound.

It meant that Hamilton was a late adopted of the ultrasoft tyres and after a scruffy opening flyer on the purple-banded tyre, the Briton later jumped to third place with a best time of 1:33.870. The lap left him just 0.073 behind Vettel.

Valtteri Bottas was fourth overall with a time of 1:34.556, some 0.759s off Vettel’s pace. The Finn avoided the ultrasofts throughout the session however and set his best time on the red-banded supersoft tyre.

Behind Bottas were the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. The pair both focused on supersoft running early in the session but moved to ultrasofts with a little over 20 minutes remaining. Verstappen’s best time on the compound was 1:34.703, 0.906 adrift of Vettel’s P1 time.

Ricciardo might have eclipsed his team-mate’s time and the Australian was a couple of tenths up on his team-mate after the first two sectors of his run, but he was forced to back out of the lap when yellow flags were shown when Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley spun in Turn 19.

Sauber’s Charles Leclerc finished as best-of-the-rest in P7 with a time of 1:35.365, 1.568s off Vettel, while Racing Point Force India’s Sergio Perez was eighth with a time of 1:35.411. Ninth place went to Renault’s Carlos Sainz, while Haas’ Romain Grosjean was tenth with a time of 1:35.468, 1.671 off the pace.

Pos.DriverTeamTimeLaps
01 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:33.797 20
02 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:33.843 21
03 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG 1:33.870 23
04 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes AMG 1:34.556 21
05 Max Verstappen Red Bull Tag Heuer 1:34.703 21
06 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Tag Heuer 1:34.910 20
07 Charles Leclerc Sauber Ferrari 1:35.365 21
08 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 1:35.411 21
09 Carlos Sainz Renault F1 1:35.450 21
10 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:35.468 19
11 Esteban Ocon Force India Mercedes 1:35.562 22
12 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso Honda 1:35.713 27
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:35.770 19
14 Nico Hulkenberg Renault F1 1:35.882 19
15 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 1:36.000 21
16 Lance Stroll Williams Mercedes 1:36.188 21
17 Sergey Sirotkin Williams Mercedes 1:36.193 20
18 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Renault 1:36.302 23
19 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso Honda 1:36.330 26
20 Fernando Alonso McLaren Renault 1:36.332 20

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