Verstappen tops tense final practice at Mexico

F1 Grand Prix, GP Mexico, Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was the fastest man in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix. He topped title challengers Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel with very small margins. Even Ricciardo in 5th was less than 0.25s behind the pace setter.

Verstappen proved agile and competitive yet again on the supersofts, before switching to ultrasofts and going fastest outright in 1:17.113.

Lewis Hamilton was behind Bottas for most of the session but a recalibration of his engine remedied his reported power issues, and saw him go second fastest, less than a tenth down on Verstappen. Vettel was a close third while Bottas and Ricciardo were similarly close, even despite the latter sitting out a large part of the session.

Home hero Sergio Perez remained equally competitive and was less than tenth faster than team mate Ocon to put Force India in 7th and 8th, ahead of the tightly matched Renault drivers.

Toro Rosso's Hartley ended up 11th fastest while team mate Gasly saw his session come to an early end with yet another mechanical issue.