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Mexican GP: Max Verstappen keeps Red Bull on top in practice three

Max Verstappen pipped Formula 1 championship leader Lewis Hamilton by a fraction of a second to set the pace in final practice for the Mexican Grand Prix.

Red Bull driver Verstappen clocked a 1m17.113s to finish just 0.075 seconds quicker than Mercedes rival Hamilton.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was third, ahead of Valtteri Bottas, with the top four separated by just 0.170s.

Hamilton set the early pace on the ultra-soft tyres at a cool and breezy Mexico City circuit before Bottas snuck ahead by a tenth, with a 1m17.963s.

Bottas than completed a series of fast laps, improving to a 1m17.537s to open up a four tenth gap over his team-mate before Hamilton reduced the deficit to three tenths.

The Red Bulls, running the super-softs, were best of the rest with Verstappen - who complained of struggling to get the front tyres to work - third and Ricciardo fourth.

When attention turned to qualifying-simulations, Bottas improved by a tenth of a second, but that was comfortably beaten by Vettel when the Ferrari bolted on a fresh set of ultra-softs.

Verstappen then snuck ahead on his low-fuel run by just 0.007s, having clocked the fastest first and second sectors.

Next time around, the Red Bull driver improved by a tenth of a second but there was more time to had after a big lock-up in the final sector.

Hamilton reported "power issues" on his first run, picking out Turn 7 as where he had the problem, and failing to improve on his earlier time.

He stayed out and improved by a fraction, but that was only good enough for sixth as Mercedes told him the issue had been spotted and was "just going to require a calibration change".

Third time around, the championship leader made big gains and slotted into second, just 0.075s adrift of Verstappen.

Ricciardo was fifth quickest, a quarter of a second off the pace, with Kimi Raikkonen sixth, three tenths slower than Ferrari team-mate Vettel.

Sergio Perez was best of the rest on home soil in seventh, nine tenths off the pace and one tenth clear of Force India team-mate Esteban Ocon.

Renault's Carlos Sainz Jr and Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10.

Brendon Hartley continued to impress with the 11th quickest time but there was frustration for Toro Rosso team-mate Pierre Gasly, who failed to set a time.

Gasly, who stepped aside for Sean Gelael in first practice and completed just 10 laps on Friday afternoon, stopped in the stadium session reporting engine issues early on.

The team gave him a complex set of instructions for how to restart the car, but when that failed, it signalled the end of his session.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, who will take 20 and 35-place grid penalties respectively for engine component changes, were 16th and 19th respectively.

Zdroj: autosport.com