FP3: Russell heads dominant Mercedes one-two in final practice

George Russell led his staff mate Lewis Hamilton in a dominant Mercedes one-two, beating freshly topped double world champion Max Verstappen by virtually half a second in the final practice session for the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Having set the benchmark on Friday, George Russell continued to dictate the tempo on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in the final practice session by clocking a 1m18.399s. His staff mate Lewis Hamilton appeared to wrestle for automobile steadiness initially of the session, however he was in concord along with his W13 on his second set of contemporary tender tyres, and went second quickest solely over a tenth of a second adrift of Russell.

Reigning world champion Verstappen set the quickest lap on his first run, however was unable to make the identical soar on the second red-walled tyres as Mercedes driver had been in a position to. The Dutchman ended the session third quickest over 4 tenths of a second slower than the sooner Mercedes racer.

His staff mate Sergio Perez labelled his Friday as troublesome on the high-altitude, most downforce Mexico City circuit, and this pattern continued in the final session. The house hero set a 1m19.241s which was solely sufficient for P5 in the tip.

Ferrari continued to wrestle with overheating after the warmth had induced paint injury on Friday. Moreover, Scuderia’s drivers complained about poor driveability and lack of entrance grip which noticed Ferrari wrestle for single-lap efficiency for the very first time this yr. As a results of the grip points, Charles Leclerc solely completed fourth quickest over seven tenths of a second adrift of Russell whereas Sainz was one other two tenths slower.

Interestingly, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas ended the session solely a few tenths of a second slower than Leclerc, Perez and Sainz on their strategy to P7 and P8 respectively.

Their staff mates had been unable to maintain up with their tempo. Zhou Guanyu set the twelfth quickest time for Alfa Romeo whereas Daniel Ricciardo struggled for brake steadiness and ended the finale one-hour session down in P14.

Alpine had been in good kind yesterday, however they appeared to have misplaced momentum in the final session forward of qualifying. Esteban Ocon completed the session over 1.5s down whereas his staff mate Fernando Alonso was an additional tenth of a second behind.

Haas and Aston Martin gave the impression to be the slowest groups in the final practice. Mick Schumacher had a wild spin by way of the esses in the early phases, however managed to maintain it out of the wall to get better and take P17. His staff mate Kevin Magnussen ended the session slowest over 2.8s down on Russell’s benchmark.

Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll took sixteenth on his birthday whereas his staff mate Sebastian Vettel completed the session second to final after continually complaining in regards to the drivability of his AMR22.