After a contentious start to Saturday with that press conference, despite the fact that Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto was not able to attend, it was then time for the track action at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, which began with third and final practice for the United States Grand Prix.
Zhou Guanyu was the first out on track, while Sergio Perez and the Ferrari cars were out early too. Charles Leclerc nailed his first flying lap, a 1:37.471- 0.065s ahead of Max Verstappen. Sergio Perez was just behind in third while Carlos Sainz was a second off the pace, though his opener came on the medium tyre. It looked like Mick Schumacher might be struggling with some gear issues early on in this final practice, struggling to find speed in his Haas: “I can’t box,” is the message to his team as he struggles on – “We know what we need to do to fix it, just a quick 15 minutes then back out,” is the reply. Haas confirmed a water pump issue for the Ferrari junior.
Sergio Perez momentarily put himself on top – although team-mate Max Verstappen ensured that was a brief spell as he went six-tenths faster with a 1:36.706. Charles Leclerc went second, but almost four-tenths off the Dutchman.
Daniel Ricciardo was reporting issues back to his garage as he struggled to control his car around the circuit: “Something is wrong with the brake pedal,” he said to the McLaren garage. However, they couldn’t seem to find the issue for him as he sat in the garage.
Meanwhile, back on track Sergio Perez set in a 1:36.5 to go fastest of all, and just a tenth behind now was Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. The British driver has a good chance for a result this weekend due to the penalties of others, including Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and this Mercedes pace seemed strong.
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The Haas garage told Mick Schumacher that it would take them 15 minutes to fix his water pump issue, but the Ferrari junior didn’t seem any closer to returning 20 minutes later.
With 15 minutes left of this final practice session, the drivers were all looking to put in some Qualifying simulation laps, as Max Verstappen was one of the first to come back out on a set of new soft tyres. He pumped in a new fastest lap, a 1:36.223. It looked like he was going to get beaten by Charles Leclerc but the Monegasque driver made a few errors in the final sector and finished just 0.010s off: “That was a very, very messy lap,” said Charles.
It was a decent lap from Lewis Hamilton as he looked to push in the final few minutes, but a tricky sector 2 meant he sat fourth, just +0.178s off Verstappen at the top of the timesheet. The two Ferrari F1-75 cars separated his Mercedes from the Red Bull, while after a well-executed lap from Max Verstappen and he improved upon his time to sit top with a 1:35.825s.
A few came close but no one could beat the Dutchman in the final practice session of this weekend in Austin: his 1:35.825 set him as the one to beat in Qualifying, which takes place later today at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA). However, there was just half a second separating him and Lewis Hamilton in fifth, with Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez completing the top five.
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