Verstappen nips Vettel to top final USGP practice

Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen

Red Bull's Max Verstappen left it till late and turned the fastest lap of the weekend so far to top final practice for the USGP at COTA in Austin Texas.

The Dutchman's lap of 1m33.305s was 0.218s faster than Sebastian Vettel in the #5 Ferrari.

The real surprise was Lando Norris turning the 3rd best time 0.513s back.

Rounding out the top-5 were the two sandbagging Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton.

The Ferraris are competitive but are suffering from reliability woes, with Leclerc missing the entire session with a power unit issue.

Practice 3 Times

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda 1:33.305 +0.000s 13
2 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:33.523 +0.218s 17
3 4 Lando Norris McLaren Renault 1:33.818 +0.513s 14
4 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:33.904 +0.599s 17
5 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:33.923 +0.618s 16
6 23 Alexander Albon Red Bull Racing Honda 1:33.983 +0.678s 14
7 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren Renault 1:34.408 +1.103s 15
8 7 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:34.513 +1.208s 18
9 10 Pierre Gasly Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:34.517 +1.212s 14
10 3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:34.774 +1.469s 11
11 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:34.784 +1.479s 11
12 18 Lance Stroll Racing Point Bwt Mercedes 1:34.792 +1.487s 14
13 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:34.849 +1.544s 17
14 26 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:35.129 +1.824s 16
15 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:35.305 +2.000s 14
16 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:35.956 +2.651s 15
17 63 George Russell Williams Mercedes 1:36.256 +2.951s 15
18 88 Robert Kubica Williams Mercedes 1:36.628 +3.323s 17
19 11 Sergio Perez Racing Point Bwt Mercedes 1:38.426 +5.121s 22
20 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari No Time No Time 1