Mercedes returned to the top of the timesheets with Nico Rosberg setting the fastest time in final practice ahead of qualifying for the Mexico Grand Prix.
The World Champion team edged out Red Bull in final practice with Nico Rosberg being quickest by just 0.014s from his teammate Hamilton with just one tenth further back to Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. However, drivers continued to struggle with a lack of grip with few drivers running wide in the Esses part of the lap and fastest times coming on their third and fourth laps as they gained confidence on the slippery Mexico circuit.
At the beginning of the session, Nico Hulkenberg led the timesheets in the opening quarter of the session with a 1m23.506 just one tenth ahead of Daniil Kyvat and home favourite Sergio Perez. Kimi Raikkonen came to a stop at turn 10 with smoke hissing from the rear of his Ferrari and an apparent loss of power and some small flames emerging from the engine.
Russian driver Kyvat soon took over at the top of the leaderboard on the medium tyres with Rosberg taking second place. Kyvat has looked strong so far this weekend and will be hoping to continue his speed into qualifying and the race itself. His Red Bull teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, had limited running in the first half of the session mainly to allow the track to gain more rubber from other drivers but soon narrowly usurped Kyvat’s fastest time before then setting an even quicker time of a 1m22.502 lap.
Champion Lewis Hamilton was another driver to sit patiently in the garage whilst the slippery Mexico circuit gained grip. He finally ventured out and went second just two- thousandths of a second behind Ricciardo although lost some time in the final sector due to traffic.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was the first driver to take on the soft yellow-striped option tyres and immediately set the fastest lap with a 1m21.871s and could have gone quicker on his next lap, but a mistake into turn 12 meant he ran wide and had to abort the lap. However, Vettel’s time was beaten by Hamilton who set a 1m21.840 lap on the medium tyre.
The rest of the field then fitted the soft tyres as they completed the final ten minutes of the session with qualifying simulation runs. The option tyres this weekend appear to be providing much better grip on the second flying lap whereas usually the option is quicker on the first lap. Ricciardo and Kyvat were first to improve and moved third and fourth respectively just two tenths slower than Hamilton’s medium tyre lap.
Rosberg, looking for a fourth consecutive pole position, then set the fastest time of the weekend with a 1m21.205s lap before going even quicker by just over a tenth. Teammate Hamilton on his sixth lap finally improved and could only manage second but just one-hundredth of a second slower than Rosberg.
Elsewhere, it looks likely to be another difficult weekend for Sauber and McLaren with their drivers struggling to be within two seconds of the leading Mercedes. Button suffered from an electrical issue on just his fourth lap of the session and was forced to sit out the rest of final practice. The British driver will have to change back to the power unit he used in first practice and will start from the back of the grid due to engine penalties.
