Max Verstappen set the pace going into qualifying after an eventful final practice for the United States Grand Prix.
The later Saturday schedule meant temperatures were a lot warmer than on Friday, but within minutes of the action getting underway, Charles Leclerc would be out after an engine issue in his Ferrari.
There’d be no such issues across the garage though as Sebastian Vettel set the initial pace on the soft tyre ahead of Valtteri Bottas.
Soon Red Bull would join the party and Max Verstappen would be the main challenger for the four-time world champion as the pair alternated fastest times.
As the final runs got underway, however, it would be the Dutchman who seized the initiative, posting a 1m33.305s to lead the Ferrari by two-tenths of a second.
The big shock came in third as Lando Norris put his McLaren ahead of the two Mercedes’ and only half a second down on Verstappen.
Rather than being an indicator of the British team suddenly challenging the top three teams, it is more likely, however, that there is still quite a lot of margin for the leaders as they take it easy on the bumpy Circuit of the Americas surface.
At the reigning champions, Valtteri Bottas’ lap would be more disappointing fourth than teammate Lewis Hamilton’s in fifth.
That’s because the Briton had seen two attempts on his final set of tyres interrupted by errors or traffic before finally making some time on his final effort.
On his first trip to COTA, Alex Albon is also struggling to show the same form he has at recent races with a near-seven-tenths deficit to Verstappen in sixth.
Carlos Sainz backed up McLaren’s strong performance in seventh, albeit 0.6s down on Norris with 2018 US GP winner Kimi Raikkonen giving Alfa Romeo their best showing for some time in eighth.
The Toro Rosso/ Renault battle rounded out the top 10, as Pierre Gasly pipped Daniel Ricciardo, with the Australian in the last of the would-be Q3 places.
He would only be 0.01s ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg in 11th, however.
After Sergio Perez picked up a pit-lane start penalty for missing the weighbridge on Friday, Racing Point’s weekend took a downward turn with Lance Stroll slipping to 12th.
Haas also look like being in the Q1/Q2 fight with Romain Grosjean 13th and Kevin Magnussen 15th.
Antonio Giovinazzi had performed well on Friday but was another to fall down the field to 16th ahead of the two Williams, as Perez didn’t complete a low fuel run and Leclerc had failed to set a time.
Full results from final practice can be seen below:
