Brazil – Free Practice 3: Mercedes and Ferrari within 5 hundredths
For this final practice session, Mercedes managed to secure another one-two, with Valtteri Bottas ahead of Lewis Hamilton. But the Ferraris are very close, which is very promising.
The temperatures have significantly decreased compared to yesterday’s session as it is now only 27°C, compared to over 50°C during the day on Friday. This has a definite impact on the functioning of the tires.
At the beginning of the session, the drivers quickly hit the track to make their final adjustments before the qualifying session. However, Sebastian Vettel lost time due to issues with his electronic sensors. But after only 10 minutes of the session, Lance Stroll was betrayed by his machinery, with his gearbox suddenly going into neutral while the Canadian was in full acceleration.
This caused the deployment of the virtual safety car for a few minutes.
After twenty minutes, the drivers start setting their first times. Both Ferraris take the lead, with Kimi Räikkönen ahead of Sebastian Vettel, thanks to the super-soft tires. The Reds are then followed by the two Mercedes, ahead of Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz, and Nico Hülkenberg, Stoffel Vandoorne, and Romain Grosjean.
Once again, the Red Bull team took a very long time to hit the track. This strategy is adopted by the team to save the mechanical components as much as possible, especially since Daniel Ricciardo will again face a ten-place grid penalty. Thus, the two drivers only appeared on the track 25 minutes before the end of the session.
In the last part of the session, the Mercedes finally fitted the super soft tires, which allowed them to take the lead. But the Ferrari drivers were not idle as they were able to regain the top spot. With 15 minutes to go, both Ferraris and Lewis Hamilton were separated by just 27 thousandths. It was at this moment that Valtteri Bottas managed to set the fastest time of the session, pushing his teammate back by only 3 thousandths of a second! On the other hand, the competition was left far behind, with Fernando Alonso, in 5th, more than a second from the lead.
Five minutes from the end, Max Verstappen spun at the re-acceleration before the final corner after running his outside tires onto the grass, which was still soaked with water. However, the Dutchman managed to avoid the wall and get back on track.
Finally, the order did not change, resulting in another Mercedes one-two, ahead of the two Ferraris. This promises a very tight qualifying session between the two teams. Daniel Ricciardo managed to slip into 5th position, just ahead of Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon, Max Verstappen, and Carlos Sainz.
