Interlagos, FP3: Hamilton quickest ahead of Verstappen in tight FP3 in Brazil

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton edged Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by just two hundredths of a second to take top spot in a tight final free practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was third fastest, three tenths of a second further back.

Verstappen led the way in the opening half of the session with the Dutchman posting a time of 1:09.063 to sit almost four tenths of a second clear of Hamilton with Valtteri Bottas third.

With just under 20 minutes to go in the session Verstappen shaved four thousandths of a second off his best time but the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc were already on track for their qualifying simulations and both brushed past the Red Bull driver’s first period benchmark with Leclerc taking over in P1 on a time of 1:08.611 with Vettel just five hundredths of second behind in P2.

However, three minutes later Hamilton and Bottas took to the track and Hamilton powered to the top of the order with a lap of 1:08.320 improving on his earlier time by over a second. Bottas, however, couldn’t find a similar improvement and his time of 1:09.224 was just three tenths better than his earlier time.

It was then the turn of the Red Bulls to do their qualifying simulations and Verstappen pumped in a fastest first sector to put pressure on Hamilton’s benchmark. The Red Bull driver lost out in the twisting middle sector however and he had to settle for P2 with a lap of 1:08.346, just 0.026s behind Hamilton.

Verstappen’s team-mate, Alex Albon, claimed P5 in the session with the Thai driver profiting from Bottas’ lack of significant improvement.

Albon endured a difficult Friday on his first outing at Interlagos, crashing out in FP1 and the failing to make the most of his qualifying simulation in FP2. And he again looked uncomfortable in FP3, complaining of trouble with his front tyres as he finished the session almost eight tenths of a second off his team-mate.

With Bottas sixth, best-of-the-rest honours were taken by Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, with the Russian finishing 1.095 off Hamilton, though he was just five hundredths of a second ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi.

Ninth place in the session went to McLaren’s Lando Norris, with the rookie finishing just three thousandths of a second ahead of 10th-placed team-mate Carlos Sainz.