Hamilton stays ahead, competition closes in
Lewis Hamilton has completed his clean sweep of free practice domination by going fastest in FP3 at Circuit of The Americas. His competition however seemed to be much closer, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel less than a tenth behind.
To underline the competitiveness, their respective team mates were at just 2 tenths, leaving everything open for qualifying that is set to be run 2 hours later than normal.
Max Verstappen was once again the fastest Red Bull on track, going 5th fastest. Felipe Massa ended up 6th, confirming an unexpected upturn in form for Williams. Both Renault team mates were again closely matched in 7th and 8th while Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez completed the top 10. Ricciardo was however slightly out of position as his improvement late in the session still included an off-track excursion, leaving some room for improvement.
Esteban Ocon was 11th fastest. Lance Stroll in the second Williams ended up 12th, a full second off of team mate Felipe Massa, but still ahead of the McLaren Honda duo. The latter appeared to be quite competitive on Friday, but have suddenly dropped down the pecking order.
Behind them are only the cars of Toro Rosso, Sauber and Haas.
Results
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:34.478 | - | 15 |
| 2 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:34.570 | +0.092s | 19 |
| 3 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:34.692 | +0.214s | 17 |
| 4 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:34.755 | +0.277s | 17 |
| 5 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer | 1:35.103 | +0.625s | 14 |
| 6 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams Mercedes | 1:35.346 | +0.868s | 11 |
| 7 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1:35.608 | +1.130s | 21 |
| 8 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Renault | 1:35.650 | +1.172s | 16 |
| 9 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer | 1:35.723 | +1.245s | 17 |
| 10 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India Mercedes | 1:35.802 | +1.324s | 16 |
| 11 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Force India Mercedes | 1:35.965 | +1.487s | 17 |
| 12 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams Mercedes | 1:36.118 | +1.640s | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren Honda | 1:36.239 | +1.761s | 15 |
| 14 | 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren Honda | 1:36.599 | +2.121s | 14 |
| 15 | 39 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 1:36.818 | +2.340s | 26 |
| 16 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 1:37.271 | +2.793s | 16 |
| 17 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber Ferrari | 1:37.319 | +2.841s | 17 |
| 18 | 94 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber Ferrari | 1:37.807 | +3.329s | 15 |
| 19 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas Ferrari | 1:37.891 | +3.413s | 9 |
| 20 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:38.500 | +4.022s | 6 |
