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F1 LIVE | Follow FP3 for the Mexican Grand Prix
It's time for the final free practice session at the Mexican Grand Prix, as teams prepare for an important qualifying session later in the day. After FP2 was used for a Pirelli tyre test, lots of teams and drivers, especially those who did not do any running in FP1, will be looking to collect valuable data for Sunday's race especially after the 90-minute FP2 session was cut short.
F1 LIVE | FP3 for the Mexican Grand Prix
F1 uses the traditional format (ish)
This triple header of the United States, Mexico and Brazil GPs will feature two sprint weekends. However, in Mexico, the drivers will use the traditional format of three practice sessions, followed by qualifying and the Grand Prix. Therefore, less importance was placed on Friday's practice session compared to the sessions at COTA last week.
The weather is set to be dry, so teams will be able to find the best setup straight away. This will be particularly important for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell struggled with the balance of the car from the off and never really recovered. Russell did well in the race to recover to P6, but Mercedes changed his car setup overnight. Meanwhile, Hamilton recorded his 32nd career retirement with a spin. Verstappen looked better at COTA but even he admitted changes needed to be made to keep the momentum on McLaren.
What can be expected for qualifying?
For drivers that have got little to no running done in terms of data collection, like Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc, the final practice session will be vital to do so before qualifying later in the day. And because of yesterday's tyre test, it is anyone's game as to who has the upper hand in terms of pace this weekend.
It was George Russell who impressed on both the hard tyres and the soft tyres in FP1, but then a heavy crash in FP2 may derail his progress. Carlos Sainz backed up his P2 in FP1 by topping the FP2 timing charts, as Ferrari will look to back up their 1-2 in Austin with another solid performance as they look to close down the game in the constructors' championship.