Nico Rosberg topped the time sheets in the final practice session for the Mexican Grand Prix.
Rosberg’s time of 1:21.083 was 0.084s faster than Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton. Third place Daniel Ricciardo finished the session 0.118s off Rosberg’s pace after setting a best lap of 1:21.201 for Red Bull.
The session got off to a rather busy start. A number of drivers made their way onto the track as soon as the light went green at the end of the pit lane. Few minutes into the session, McLaren’s Jenson Button complained about his ERS not recharging. He was told to pit and that was the end of his session after an electrical problem was discovered in his new engine. McLaren confirmed that they will revert back to the engine he used in FP1.
A few minutes after Button’s calamities, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen came to a stop off the track after flames were seen out the back of his Ferrari. A Ferrari spokesperson later said that it was a faulty lambda sensor on the engine. The problem did seem worse than it was and we could see Raikkonen taking a 10-place grid drop for an engine change.
Drivers still struggled with the lack of grip with a few running wide at the esses and a few lock ups.
Seeing that the top 5 are separated by less that half a second, qualifying is going to be incredibly close.
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Best Lap | Gap |
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:21.083 | – |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:21.097 | 0.014 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:21.201 | 0.118 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:21.294 | 0.211 |
| 5 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 1:21.530 | 0.447 |
| 6 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:21.603 | 0.520 |
| 7 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:21.772 | 0.689 |
| 8 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:21.775 | 0.692 |
| 9 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:21.945 | 0.862 |
| 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:22.010 | 0.927 |
| 11 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:22.039 | 0.956 |
| 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:22.042 | 0.959 |
| 13 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:22.184 | 1.101 |
| 14 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:22.871 | 1.788 |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:23.065 | 1.982 |
| 16 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:23.067 | 1.984 |
| 17 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:24.648 | 3.656 |
| 18 | Will Stevens | Manor | 1:25.654 | 4.571 |
| 19 | Alexander Rossi | Manor | 1:28.176 | 7.093 |
| 20 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:29.336 | 8.253 |
Photo credit: Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team
