USGP: Hamilton tops very wet final practice
Lewis Hamilton tries to stay dry |
Putting the Mercedes extra 100HP to good use on the straights, Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap in a very wet final practice for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.
With rivers running across the track all drivers were required to use full wet tires. Still just about all the drivers spun out, including Hamilton.
2nd fastest Sebastian Vettel spun first at Turn 19 and then Turn 9 and then complained about aquaplaning as conditions worsened in the final half of the session.
The Ferrari driver still finished ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz Jr.
Rain is expected to continue for qualifying this afternoon, but even if qualifying is unable to be completed as scheduled, it probably will run on Sunday ahead of the race. With zero walk-up crowd one thing is for certain, the race promoter will take a financial bloodbath this year.
Practice 3 Results
Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Behind | Laps |
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes/Mercedes | 1m59.517s | 0.000s | 9 |
2 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari/Ferrari | 2m00.380s | 0.863s | 9 |
3 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India/Mercedes | 2m00.496s | 0.979s | 12 |
4 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Mercedes | 2m00.523s | 1.006s | 14 |
5 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Renault | 2m00.687s | 1.170s | 11 |
6 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull/Renault | 2m00.694s | 1.177s | 12 |
7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari/Ferrari | 2m00.785s | 1.268s | 9 |
8 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 2m01.008s | 1.491s | 12 |
9 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes/Mercedes | 2m01.474s | 1.957s | 7 |
10 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 2m02.199s | 2.682s | 13 |
11 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 2m02.660s | 3.143s | 12 |
12 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus/Mercedes | 2m02.825s | 3.308s | 10 |
13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus/Mercedes | 2m02.921s | 3.404s | 11 |
14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren/Honda | 2m03.375s | 3.858s | 9 |
15 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 2m04.399s | 4.882s | 13 |
16 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda | 2m05.283s | 5.766s | 7 |
17 | Will Stevens | Marussia/Ferrari | 2m05.378s | 5.861s | 10 |
18 | Alexander Rossi | Marussia/Ferrari | 2m05.607s | 6.090s | 10 |
19 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber/Ferrari | 2m06.792s | 7.275s | 10 |
20 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso/Renault | 2m09.994s | 10.477s | 7 |