Valtteri Bottas finished fastest in a very closely fought the final free practice session for the Brazil Grand Prix.
It was so close in fact, the top four were covered by 0.058s. with Bottas the fastest for Mercedes with a best time of 1:09.281. Team-mate Lewis Hamilton was 2nd fastest with a best lap of 1:09.284, just 0.003s off.
The two Ferrari’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were 3rd and 4th fastest respectively. Raikkonen edging out Vettel this session with a 1:09.326, to Vettel’s 1:09.339.
It was close between the Ferrari and Mercedes drivers as they battled each other for the fastest time lap after lap on their qualifying simulations. It was Mercedes who eventually took the honours of the session.
Struggling for some pace in the session was the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo in 5th almost a second off the pace. Team Principal Christian Horner told Sky Sports F1 during the session that he does not think they can trouble Mercedes and Ferrari during qualifying but he hopes that they can get close. Verstappen in the second Red Bull finished his session 9th fastest with a best time of 1:10.495. The Dutchman complained about under-steer on his Red Bull and then spun at Turn 14 after dipping a wheel on the grass.
It was another good session for Alonso finishing 6th fastest ahead of the two Pink Panther Force India’s in 7th and 8th. Perez finishing ahead of Ocon this session.
Carlos Sainz rounded out the top 10 for Renault this session after some difficult in the beginning of the session.
Lance Stroll’s session got off to a bad start after a terminal engine/gearbox problem put him out of the session. Williams say that they will have to change the engine and the gearbox before qualifying.
The issue of traffic has cropped up once again this session. Drivers were finding it tricky to get out of the way of faster drivers and to set lap times. This could make qualifying interesting.
It’s going to be another Mercedes-Ferrari show down in qualifying with Hamilton looking likely to take pole position.
INITIAL CLASSIFICATION (END OF FP3)
The top four are separated by just 0.058 seconds 👀#BrazilGP 🇧🇷 #FP3 pic.twitter.com/7X82noBySv
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 11, 2017
