Valtteri Bottas topped the final Formula 1 practice session ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix, with the top four cars separated by 0.058s.
Bottas’ session benchmark of 1m09.281s meant that Mercedes has finished top of every practice session this weekend after Lewis Hamilton headed both FP1 and FP2 on Friday.
Hamilton finished the session second, a mere 0.003s adrift of Bottas’ time. During the early running on the soft tyre, it was Hamilton who had the advantage over his team-mate.
The Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel finished third and fourth. Both are in contention for pole after being within six-hundredths of Bottas.
Both Mercedes’ and Raikkonen set their fastest times on the second lap of their qualifying simulation on the super-soft tyre. The cooler track conditions – 27 degrees below Friday’s peak temperatures – lessened tyre degradation.
Red Bull aimed to limit mileage in order to protect their power units during the session. They completed around half of the mileage recorded by their rivals. Daniel Ricciardo ended the session fifth.
Max Verstappen complained of “unbelievable understeer.” He was wide at Turn 4 on the first lap of his qualifying simulation, before a spin at Turn 12 curtailed his run. He ended the session ninth.
Fernando Alonso enjoyed a promising session in sixth, just over one second behind Bottas’ benchmark. He was followed by the Force India pairing of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon in seventh and eighth respectively.
Carlos Sainz Jr rounded out the top 10 for Renault. Team-mate Nico Hulkenberg was less than two tenths adrift of Sainz but instead finished 14th, highlighting the close nature of the midfield tussle.
Toro Rosso had a clean session, but Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley finished 16th and 17th and look susceptible to a Q1 exit from qualifying.
Williams’ Lance Stroll failed to record a time. His car’s power unit seized up within the opening 10 minutes and he was unable to select any gears. It remains to be seen if he will suffer a grid penalty as a result of a component change.
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