Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton bounced back to lead FP3 in F1 of Brazil GP from Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
It was a dry run in F1 Brazil GP at Interlagos in FP3 as Mercedes bounced back with Lewis Hamilton ending up as quickest with a 1m08.320s lap but the British racer was only 0.026s away from Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen (1m08.346s).
The Dutchman managed to get ahead of the two Ferrari drivers with Charles Leclerc (1m08.611s) leading Sebastian Vettel (1m08.664s) as Red Bull’s Alexander Albon (1m09.136s) was fifth from Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas (1m09.201s).
The closeness could be sensed with the Top 6 drivers within a second of each other as Hamilton making a slight difference in the end. Teammate Bottas could have matched him but for a slight mistake on his quick lap to be only fifth in the order.
Interestingly, both the Ferrari drivers were slightly off on both Hamilton and Verstappen but they could still find time in Q3. The best of the rest honour went to Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat (1m09.415s) in seventh with the team bouncing back after dismal Friday.
Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi (1m09.462s) put in a late lap to be eighth as the Top 10 was rounded out by the two McLaren drivers with Lando Norris (1m09.585s) ahead of Carlos Sainz (1m09.588s) – the duo separate by only 0.003s.
The Spaniard nearly collided with Leclerc at one point as well. Missing on a Top 10 slot was Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen (1m09.619s) in 11th with Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly (1m09.625s) doing well in 12th from Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m09.650s).
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m09.713s) was 14th with Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m09.761s) 15th with the other Haas of Romain Grosjean (1m09.798s) in 16th ahead of Racing Point’s Sergio Perez (1m09.995s) – the latter two had a run-in during the session.
Perez’s teammate Lance Stroll (1m10.312s) was 18th with Williams duo of George Russell (1m10.843s) and Robert Kubica (1m11.205s) in 19th and 20th as the latter finally got 23 laps on the board after FP1 miss and FP2 crash.
Here’s what the teams said after Friday in F1 Brazil GP