Sebastian Vettel topped the times in the final free practice session ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver was the only man to set a time under 1m08s around the Interlagos track, ending the morning with a 1m07.948s. He was more than two tenths of a second quicker than Lewis Hamilton, who was second quickest.
Hamilton’s running was limited in the first half of a session as the Mercedes mechanics dismantled and rebuilt his car after a breather pipe became dislodged. He set his first lap near the middle of the hour long session, with puffs of smoke coming from the back of his Mercedes, to go second quickest.
He later improved to top the times, smoke still coming from his car, but was knocked down first by Kimi Raikkonen and then by Vettel.
The now four-time champion improved again to split the two Ferrari’s, but couldn’t bring the challenge to Vettel, backing off on his final lap of the morning.
Valtteri Bottas pipped Raikkonen to P3, finishing the morning less than 0.03s quicker than the Ferrari driver.
After a strong performance in Mexico, Red Bull continued to struggle in the final Brazilian practice. Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo took fifth and sixth respectively, but Ricciardo’s best time was only 0.358s quicker than Kevin Magnussen in P7.
Romain Grosjean was a further tenth of a second back in P8 with Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc rounding out the top 10.
Nico Hulkenberg took 11th, with Esteban Ocon, Marcus Ericsson and Carlos Sainz completing the top 15.
Sergey Sirotkin took 15th ahead of Brendon Hartley, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez.
Stoffel Vandoorne was the last of the runners, finishing P20.
