Brazilian GP: Free Practice #3 - RE-CAP & TIMES

BRAZILIAN GP - FREE PRACTICE #3 - RE-CAP & TIMES

    Sebastian Vettel topped the times in the final free practice session ahead of qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

    The Ferrari driver was the only man to set a time under 1m18s around the Interlagos circuit, lowering the benchmark to 1m07.948s before the end of the morning.

    Newly-crowned champion Lewis Hamilton finished second fastest, 0.217s slower than Vettel, after spending much of the first half of the session confined to the pits.

    A breather pipe in Hamilton’s car had become dislodged and the Mercedes mechanics spent the first half hour repairing Hamilton’s car. When he eventually managed to get on track, puffs of smoke came out of the Brit’s car on a number of occasions, but there didn’t seem to be any serious issue.

    On his first lap of the day, Hamilton  put himself second, ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas, before improving to push Vettel off the top spot.

    Kimi Raikkonen, the first man to set a time earlier in the session, quickly pushed Hamilton back down to second, before Vettel put in his fastest time of the day to go P1.

    With smoke still coming out of the back of his car, Hamilton put in another flying lap. He set the fastest second sector but couldn’t quite hook up the lap and had to settle for second quickest.

    Bottas took third, ahead of Raikkonen, Max Verstappen, and Daniel Ricciardo.

    A late improvement from Kevin Magnussen put him best of the rest, finishing the morning just 0.358s behind the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.

    Romain Grosjean took eighth, ahead of Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc, making it five Ferrari powered cars inside the top 10.

    Nico Hulkenberg was the fastest of the works Renaults in P11, finishing 1.513s off Vettel’s pace.

    Esteban Ocon ended the morning 12th quickest, ahead of Marcus Ericsson, Carlos Sainz, and Sergey Sirotkin.

    Brendon Hartley, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, and Stoffel Vandoorne completed the order.

TIMES:

1. Sebastian Vettel - 1:07.948 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Germany
2. Lewis Hamilton - 1:08.165 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Great Britain
3. Valtteri Bottas - 1:08.465 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Finland
4. Kimi Raikkonen - 1:08.490 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Finland
5. Max Verstappen - 1:08.733 / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Netherlands
6. Daniel Ricciardo - 1:08.788 / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Australia
7. Kevin Magnussen – 1:09.146 / Haas-Ferrari / Denmark 
8. Romain Grosjean - 1:09.257 / Haas-Ferrari / France
9. Pierre Gasly - 1:09.402 / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / France
10. Charles Leclerc - 1:09.448 / Sauber-Ferrari / Monaco
11. Nico Hulkenberg - 1:09.461 / Renault-Renault / Germany
12. Esteban Ocon - 1:09.588 / Racing Point Force India-Mercedes / France
13. Marcus Ericsson - 1:09.808 / Sauber-Ferrari / Sweden
14. Carlos Sainz - 1:09.864 / Renault-Renault / Spain
15. Sergey Sirotkin - 1:09.885 / Williams-Mercedes / Russia
16. Brendon Hartley - 1:09.985 / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / New Zealand
17. Lance Stroll - 1:10.001 / Williams-Mercedes / Canada
18. Fernando Alonso - 1:10.020 / McLaren-Renault / Spain
19. Sergio Perez - 1:10.116 / Racing Point Force India-Mercedes / Mexico
20. Stoffel Vandoorne - 1:10.289 / McLaren-Renault / Belgium

----
Article Written By: Bethonie Waring
No copyright infringement intended 
Follow us on Twitter @bethonieboost & @F1Insider78