Sebastian Vettel remained quickest in final practice for the United States Grand Prix, improving his time from yesterday by over half a second.
Team mate Mark Webber made it one-two for Red Bull while a late lap from Lewis Hamilton on the softer medium tyres moved him up to third place.
Before the drivers began their medium tyre runs Valtteri Bottas had held a strong third place for Williams. He slipped back to ninth in the final minutes, saying he found little improvement from his car on the softer rubber.
However he remained in front of both Ferraris, both of which were outside the top ten as practice drew to a close. Felipe Massa said the car was “completely too slow” and languished in 17th place despite a clean lap.
Nico Hulkenberg was a strong fourth for Sauber ahead of Romai Grosjean’s Lotus. The latter was over half a second quicker than new team mate Heikki Kovalainen, who ended practice in 13th place.
Combined practice times
| Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’40.662 | 1’37.305 | 1’36.733 | -0.572 | 70 |
| 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’39.083 | 1’37.420 | 1’36.936 | -0.484 | 74 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’38.979 | 1’37.958 | 1’37.064 | -0.894 | 81 |
| 4 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’39.158 | 1’38.254 | 1’37.272 | -0.982 | 77 |
| 5 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1’39.238 | 1’38.255 | 1’37.345 | -0.91 | 66 |
| 6 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1’38.371 | 1’38.269 | 1’37.534 | -0.735 | 77 |
| 7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’38.657 | 1’37.785 | 1’37.578 | -0.207 | 83 |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | McLaren | 1’39.256 | 1’38.941 | 1’37.583 | -1.358 | 67 |
| 9 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1’38.388 | 1’39.512 | 1’37.747 | -0.641 | 71 |
| 10 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’39.699 | 1’38.719 | 1’37.748 | -0.971 | 67 |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’38.343 | 1’38.461 | 1’37.763 | -0.58 | 65 |
| 12 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’38.532 | 1’38.229 | 1’37.774 | -0.455 | 76 |
| 13 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1’39.487 | 1’38.073 | 1’37.879 | -0.194 | 80 |
| 14 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1’39.200 | 1’39.784 | 1’38.022 | -1.178 | 64 |
| 15 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’39.863 | 1’39.246 | 1’38.109 | -1.137 | 70 |
| 16 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’39.836 | 1’39.410 | 1’38.275 | -1.135 | 71 |
| 17 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’39.005 | 1’38.938 | 1’38.408 | -0.53 | 71 |
| 18 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’39.579 | 1’38.636 | -0.943 | 57 | |
| 19 | Charles Pic | Caterham-Renault | 1’42.054 | 1’40.376 | 1’39.578 | -0.798 | 77 |
| 20 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham-Renault | 1’40.563 | 1’40.056 | -0.507 | 56 | |
| 21 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’40.065 | 20 | |||
| 22 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’47.987 | 1’40.825 | -7.162 | 41 | |
| 23 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’41.605 | 1’46.226 | 1’41.293 | -0.312 | 68 |
| 24 | Alexander Rossi | Caterham-Renault | 1’41.399 | 21 | |||
| 25 | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’43.716 | 17 |
2013 United States Grand Prix
- Bottas claims first Driver of the Weekend vote win
- Second race at COTA gets much lower rating
- 2013 US GP Predictions Championship results
- 2013 United States Grand Prix fans’ video gallery
- 2013 United States Grand Prix team radio transcript
Image © Red Bull/Getty
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
16th November 2013, 16:13
Come on Hulk !
Also nice to see McLaren and Williams “up there” for a change.
Baron (@baron)
16th November 2013, 16:20
Wow, that Perez stomped all over Button yet again….
gdewilde (@gdewilde)
16th November 2013, 16:32
/sarcasm
OmarR-Pepper (@)
16th November 2013, 16:24
@fer-no65 I’m afraid Hulk will not be signed by Lotus. If they had hired him, they would have already said it to diminish the Kimi-gate they are going through these days.
scuderia_fan85 (@scuderia_fan85)
16th November 2013, 16:25
It seems to me Ferrari aren’t really interested in fighting for runner-up spot. They r grinding hard on their wind tunnel and the 2014 car. Boring end to another season thanks to Redbull.
Palle (@palle)
16th November 2013, 16:50
Why is that RBR’s fault? The other teams are not good enough. Ferrari is a proud old team with a lot of Motorsport Heritage and yet half their garage has for years been running a driver who has been “yesterday’s” star ever since his accident. McLaren made so many amateur errors last year that Lewis didn’t want to drive for them this year. And Mercedes are not yet fully up to speed. Lotus has been a little too unstable and they apparently lack money. Hopefully McLaren are working on a superb car for next year, but I expect Vettel and Newey to run away with it again.
scuderia_fan85 (@scuderia_fan85)
16th November 2013, 18:32
RBR wanna win, no doubt like every team. but this reminds me of Schumacher/Ferrari domination. they have succeded what was their main goal, but for the fans it must get boring to watch. and that is the fault of them being unstoppable.
Sri Harsha (@harsha)
16th November 2013, 16:58
Your first sentence itself contradicts your 3rd sentence mate. If you want to thank any one for boring season then you must thank other teams
scuderia_fan85 (@scuderia_fan85)
16th November 2013, 18:34
how so? and no RBR is squarely in the blame column, at least for the fans.
Minardi (@gitanes)
16th November 2013, 16:28
Hulkenberg clearly was smart to stay in that Sauber.
Also, Pic is within a second of the slowest Toro Rosso – wonder when the last time that’s happened.
Rigi (@rigi)
16th November 2013, 16:59
i recall van der garde being only 1.5 seconds off p1 in q1 in india! (at least when he set his fastest time)
AldoG
16th November 2013, 16:31
I have to admit: this made me laugh out loud. Good one.
Palle (@palle)
16th November 2013, 16:51
+1
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
16th November 2013, 16:32
As I was expecting would happen, Grosjean has ended up showing he more than has a measure for Kovalinen.
Hülkenberg and particularly Bottas are having really strong showings so far; I do hope Sauber can really challenge Force India for 6th and Williams can score a few more points so it’s not quite such an abysmal season’s effort!
Broc Smith (@strifeforce)
16th November 2013, 16:43
It would be funny to see Lotus explaining why they hired MAL if Bottas ends up with more points at the end of the year.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
16th November 2013, 16:48
Really, we would already know the explanation @strifeforce!
Palle (@palle)
16th November 2013, 16:54
I don’t need to hear the explanation, as I can’t see how they can come up with anything which even by a long shot can be considered rational.
Which is also why they didn’t deserve to get a good driver to replace Kimi.
Broc Smith (@strifeforce)
16th November 2013, 16:59
Of course but it would be must see TV lol. “I diddn’t hire MAL because of money, even though HUL has like 30x the points of MAL”.
Lotus FAIL
JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
16th November 2013, 17:32
@palle
You really think that a team with a severe shortage of funds hiring a driver who comes with significant sponsorship attached isn’t rational?
Joshua Mesh (@joshua-mesh)
16th November 2013, 18:24
Well Ferrari have been more than 1 second off the pace since half way through the year.
Palle (@palle)
16th November 2013, 19:34
Yes, lack of money, inability to attract funds or get the right loan has always had a tendency to produce bad decisions.
If Lotus development for next year has also suffered from lack of money, then of course they won’t need a very good driver line-up. I just sort of hoped or presumed that Lotus would be able to keep the momentum up next season, but that might not be the case.