Ferrari on top as Hamilton sets the benchmark
Lewis Hamilton posted the quickest time in the third and last practice session for the United States Grand Prix, giving Ferrari a clean sweep of the weekend's practice running. The British driver's best lap of 1m 34.893s around the Circuit of The Americas put him ahead of Max Verstappen, who had to settle for second, and his Ferrari team mate Charles Leclerc, who ended the session third after one of his efforts was removed.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7][S8]
The Mercedes pair filled the next two places, with Kimi Antonelli fourth and George Russell fifth. Antonelli, who has a chance to secure his first title this weekend, had briefly gone to the top of the order on soft tyres before running wide at Turn 9 and losing that lap to track limits, prompting his race engineer Pete Bonnington to remark that he had been doing well until then.[S1][S4]
Deleted laps and a pit lane incident
Track limits were again a dominant theme in Austin, following the 128 laps deleted during the second practice session. Both Lando Norris and Leclerc had early attempts removed for exceeding the boundaries, and Leclerc's later lap, which had briefly put him ahead of his team mate, was also deleted and dropped him to third. Verstappen had earlier led on medium tyres with a 1m 35.702s before Hamilton and Leclerc traded the top spot.[S1][S5]
The stewards also confirmed they would look into a pit lane incident involving Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll after the session. Replays indicated that the Aston Martin driver was travelling down the fast lane at the moment the Audi driver pulled out for a practice start.[S1]
The rest of the order before qualifying
Oscar Piastri took sixth for McLaren, with Hulkenberg seventh and Norris eighth after a session in which the McLaren driver had already described his car as difficult to handle. Pierre Gasly was ninth for Alpine and Isack Hadjar tenth for Red Bull, followed by the Racing Bulls pair of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad.[S1]
Gabriel Bortoleto, Ollie Bearman, Franco Colapinto and Fernando Alonso occupied places 13 to 16, with Esteban Ocon 17th and Stroll 18th. Williams endured another poor session, Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz ending up 19th and 20th, while the Cadillacs of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas were 21st and 22nd. Bortoleto, Colapinto and Lindblad are all due to take grid penalties into Sunday's race. Qualifying was scheduled to begin at 1600 local time.[S1]
