United States – Free Practice 3: Hamilton Untouchable with Mercedes, Williams Positions Itself

This third free practice session begins under the American sun, ideal conditions for the 18 participants this weekend.

At the start of the session, many drivers take to the track, notably Sebastian Vettel, who had stayed in the pits for long minutes during the second practice session. After a few minutes, Kevin Magnussen emerges at the front with a time of 1:40.837, as drivers begin to clock their first timed laps. However, the morning temperatures in Austin hinder the drivers, who will race in much warmer conditions during qualifying and the race: it will therefore take them more time to get their tires up to temperature and thus achieve a good lap.

Some difficulties in certain corners with tires that are too cold, like for Adrian Sutil or Felipe Massa, who go off into the run-offs after a missed braking. But the Brazilian recovers on the following lap with a much faster time: 1:39.820, relegating Kevin Magnussen to more than a second behind. As the laps progress, the track greatly improves, as evidenced by Daniel Ricciardo’s second-fastest time, just ahead of Daniil Kvyat.

After 20 minutes, Daniel Ricciardo sets the fastest time with 1:39.693, while only four drivers have not clocked a timed lap: Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, and the two Mercedes drivers. At Toro Rosso, Jean-Eric Vergne is called in at Renault’s request for checks on his power unit, while something is bothering Daniil Kvyat in his cockpit: a seatbelt, according to him. At the bottom of the rankings, Sebastian Vettel is already starting the race simulation, as he is expected to do only a few laps in qualifying before starting from the pits tomorrow. Fernando Alonso, for his part, sets the 4th fastest time, 222 thousandths off Daniel Ricciardo’s best time.

The first laps by Mercedes drivers finally come after the mid-session, but Lewis Hamilton cannot do better than the 5th fastest time while Nico Rosberg completes only a handful of slow laps before returning to the pits in the last position. During a following lap, the Brit even spins as discussions about the brakes take place between the German and his engineer.

**After 40 minutes**, the majority of the drivers returned to the pits after testing tire degradation under these conditions: the call for soft tires (yellow) seems to be heard. However, Nico Rosberg comes out on medium tires, probably to test the correction made to his Mercedes’ brakes, but the German makes a mistake.

Fernando Alonso is one of the first drivers to go back out on soft tires: the standings should quickly evolve as 16 of the 18 cars are within 1.750 seconds on medium tires. The Spaniard improves by 7 tenths despite a small mistake that saw him go wide, to set the fastest time at 1:39.108. The Ferrari driver is joined by other contenders for the fastest times, and it’s Valtteri Bottas who will lower the mark next.

During the last 10 minutes, Romain Grosjean sets the 5th fastest time, 1.3 seconds behind the Finn, while Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen improve for the second and third positions. At Mercedes, Nico Rosberg seems to have a brake issue.

Felipe Massa takes the provisional first place with 1:38.214, before Lewis Hamilton steps up with 1:37.107! The Briton pushes his closest rival back by 1.107 seconds. A small surprise in the standings, Adrian Sutil takes the 8th place: the start of an American dream for the Sauber team? In the final minutes, Nico Rosberg manages to set a timed lap that puts him in second position, but quite far from his teammate: 884 milliseconds separate them.

It is therefore Lewis Hamilton who, once again, sets the fastest time in this practice session. The Englishman is in perfect condition for the qualifying session, while his teammate is struggling with brake issues but manages to climb to the 2nd position, ahead of the Williams drivers.