Sebastian Vettel laid down a marker to his rivals by posting a new lap record around Interlagos in final practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The German produced a perfect lap to post a 1m07.948s on the Supersoft tyre in his Ferrari, almost four tenths up on last year’s pole time set by Valtteri Bottas.
Lewis Hamilton had a tricky start to the session as a loose oil breather pipe saw smoke coming from his Mercedes, the issue would be resolved though and despite several attempts, he couldn’t match Vettel finishing two-tenths back in second.
Bottas would be a further three-tenths back in third albeit just ahead of the second Prancing Horse driven by Kimi Raikkonen.
The two Red Bulls limited their running to the final 25 minutes, completing two qualifying runs and Max Verstappen got the better of teammate Daniel Ricciardo by half a tenth, however, fifth and sixth look like their best hope without any external factors such as rain.
Haas remains the lead midfield team in seventh and eighth for their two drivers as the installation of Honda’s latest engine saw Pierre Gasly jump up to ninth in the Toro Rosso.
Charles Leclerc completed the top 10 for Sauber but as you’d expect the margins are fine with three-tenths covering the four drivers.
Nico Hulkenberg was a further 0.013s back in 11th as Renault’s tricky weekend continues with Force India also struggling with Esteban Ocon their highest placed in P12.
Towards the back, Williams appears to have the edge on McLaren with Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll leading Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, the Belgian rounded out the standings and had a close call with a bird during the session with both just emerging unscathed.
Birthday boy Brendon Hartley and Sergio Perez would be the two drivers fighting it out to avoid Q1 elimination with the Kiwi P16 and the Mexican a surprising P19.
Full results and times from Practice 3 can be seen below:
