Lewis Hamilton has finished his participation in the third practice session of the United States Grand Prix of Formula 1 in first position, ahead of Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, at the Austin Circuit.
In the last 20 minutes of this session, Hamilton was the only driver to break the 1:35 barrier, while repeated infringements of track limits prevented Leclerc, his teammate at Ferrari, from finishing ahead of him in the standings.
The session started calmly, but as it progressed, Hamilton set a time of 1:36.716s on soft tires, dominating the group after several drivers set times on medium tires.
Max Verstappen temporarily moved to the front with a time of 1:35.702s, despite complaints about uncomfortable gear changes. However, Hamilton quickly responded, lowering his time to 1:35.561s.
Leclerc surprisingly managed to outpace both drivers with a time of 1:35.127s, despite using medium tires, thus showing that there was still room for improvement for his rivals.
In the final moments of the session, Antonelli set a very competitive time but was disqualified for exceeding track limits. Verstappen achieved a time of 1:35.061s, putting him back in first place. Nevertheless, Hamilton finished the round spectacularly with a time of 1:34.893s.
Leclerc could not improve his time and thus finished in third position. Antonelli, the championship leader, ended up fourth, followed by his Mercedes teammate, George Russell.
The results of this last practice session have set the stage for an exciting qualifying that will take place on Saturday afternoon.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
