Blue skies, packed house, and one awesome track: the stage is set for an exciting qualifying session at the Circuit of the Americas. In the final free practice session for the 2021 United States Grand Prix, Mercedes and Red Bull showed they are clearly close, while Ferrari can be pleased with the pace and work carried out ahead of qualifying.
Most of the drivers were sitting and waiting in the start of FP3. Sebastian Vettel, who like George Russell and Valtteri Bottas has a Mercedes engine penalty this weekend, was the first out on track.
Scuderia Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc completed the final qualifying simulations on the soft tyres and race simulations on the medium and hard compounds, as the Maranello team will look to make a step forward as compared to Friday practice and attempt to win the fight with McLaren, its direct rival for third place in the 2021 Formula 1 Constructor Standings.
With 20 minutes until the end of FP3, Carlos Sanz went quicker than both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton for Scuderia Ferrari as the track continued to ramp up, with a great lap time of 1:34.805. The Spanish driver’s lap was very special taking into consideration that Charles Leclerc’s effort in the Ferrari SF21 was much more difficult after a scruffy final sector, which saw him run wide and get his time deleted.
However, in the end Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen managed an even quicker lap: the Dutchman went quicker by three tenths of a second, although ran a little wide at T19 and the time of 1:34.3 was duly deleted.
US Grand Prix – Here are the complete results from free practice three ahead of this weekend’s 2021 F1 World Championship race the Circuit of the Americas.
Results (Classification):
Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing – 1:34.701
Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari +0.104
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.211
Lando Norris McLaren +0.244
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +0.287
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.518
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +0.644
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +0.697
Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari +0.987
Esteban Ocon Alpine +1.010
Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +1.150
George Russell Williams Racing +1.322
Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo +1.361
Nicholas Latifi Williams Racing +1.417
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo +1.551
Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1.691
Fernando Alonso Alpine +1.789
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +1.871
Mick Schumacher Haas +1.970
Nikita Mazepin Haas +28.755
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