United States Grand Prix – Free Practice 3: Max continues his dominance

For the last time of the weekend, Formula 1 drivers would have to get used to the bumps of COTA before the qualifying and the race. The Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo were the first cars to take to the track in this third free practice session. The Ferraris confirmed their good pace from Thursday with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz sandwiching the two Ferraris. The gaps between the drivers of the two top teams were very close right from the start. Only 67 thousandths separated Leclerc and Verstappen.

On his home turf, Haas has been severely lacking luck since the beginning of the weekend. After Giovinazzi’s crash during FP1, Mick Schumacher was facing difficulties with his car, preventing him from completing laps. The German driver exited the last corner of the track extremely slowly and was forced to return to his garage after just 10 minutes of the session. The driver’s engineer informed him that he would miss 15 minutes of the session in order to repair his car.

Mick Schumacher was not the only unlucky one in this third free practice session, Daniel Ricciardo also encountered difficulties with his car. The Australian, who arrived on the back of a horse in the paddock, had more success on four legs than on four wheels. Indeed, he complained on the radio about a strange sensation with his brake pedal. The McLaren driver then went straight into his pit. Returning to the track about fifteen minutes later, the man nicknamed the Honey Badger announced to his engineer that the changes made to his car now gave him more confidence behind the wheel.

Drifting since the beginning of the weekend, Fernando Alonso’s slides did not seem to have much impact on his times. With 40 minutes left, the Asturian native was sitting in 5th position. With Esteban Ocon right behind his teammate, Alpine continued to assert itself as the fourth force on the grid. George Russell, clearly inspired by Alonso, also showed his talents in figure skating with a huge slide at the exit of the first corner. Forced to abort his first lap, his second one placed him 6th on the timesheet.

With 10 minutes of session, the main protagonists of the driver championship were engaged in a new battle to achieve the fastest time. After the initial attempts of each, it was Max Verstappen who emerged on top, 10 milliseconds ahead of Charles Leclerc. Carlos Sainz, who had only done runs with the medium tires so far, showed excellent pace with the soft tires, placing himself just 48 milliseconds behind his former teammate at Toro Rosso. The fight for pole position between Red Bull and Ferrari was shaping up to be particularly close.

It is finally the new world champion who continues his hegemony by setting the best lap time in this third free practice session. The Dutch driver managed to put 3 tenths of a second between him and his closest rival, Charles Leclerc. Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez finished in 3rd and 4th position respectively. Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes is a bit further back in 5th position, with a 5 tenths of a second gap to his nemesis from last year.