Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen ended FP3 of F1 US GP on top with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in second and McLaren’s Lando Norris in third.
The organisers of F1 US GP tried to smoothen parts of the Circuit of the Americas overnight to ease the bumps after several complaints on the grounds of safety. Action got underway in the FP3 session as Red Bull’s Verstappen was quickest with a 1m33.305s lap.
He bumped Ferrari’s Vettel from the top spot after a late lap with the German ending up second with a 1m33.523s lap as McLaren’s Norris leapfrogged Carlos Sainz and both the Mercedes drivers to finish third with a 1m33.818s lap.
Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas (1m33.904s) was ahead of Lewis Hamilton (1m33.923s) in fourth as the British racer was sixth until the final moments when he moved ahead of Red Bull’s Alexander Albon (1m33.983s) to be fifth.
McLaren’s Sainz (1m34.408s) was seventh with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen (1m34.513s) slotting in eighth from Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly (1m34.517s) and the two Renault of Daniel Ricciardo (1m34.774s) and Nico Hulkenberg (1m34.784s).
Racing Point’s Lance Stroll (1m34.792s) was 12th with Haas’ Romain Grosjean (1m34.849s) in 13th after a better run. Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat (1m35.129s) ended up 14th from the other Haas of Kevin Magnussen (1m35.305s).
Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi (1m35.956s) finished 16th from Williams’ George Russell (1m36.256s) and Robert Kubica (1m36.628s) as Racing Point’s Sergio Perez (1m38.426s) focused on race run due to his pitlane start penalty.
The Mexican has taken also new parts in his pool from Mercedes for rest of 2019 F1 season. Meanwhile, at the bottom with no lap time was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who only managed just the install lap due to a suspected engine issue.
It was be race against time for the Italian manufacturer to fix the issue as the pace shown by Vettel would mean that Ferrari will lose a possible front-row start. Aside the Leclerc trouble, several lap times were deleted due to track limits rule.
Here’s what the drivers said after Friday in F1 US GP