Sebastian Vettel set a new record lap time for the Interlagos circuit as he head Lewis Hamilton in the final practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver set a best time of 1’07.948, over half a second faster than team mate Kimi Raikkonen, the pair separated by the two Mercedes driver. Vettel beat the previous record, set by Valtteri Bottas in qualifying last year, by almost four-tenths of a second.Hamilton recovered from an early setback to record the second-fastest time, two-tenths of a second behind Vettel. He was confined to the garage early in the session with smoke coming from the back of his Mercedes, which was traced to a faulty fuel breather pipe.
The Red Bull pair were relegated to fifth and sixth places as expected, Max Verstappen two-tenths of a second off Raikkonen. The Haas pair were next, continuing their run at the front of the midfield pack this weekend.
Having switched to the current spec-three Honda power unit overnight, Pierre Gasly moved his Toro Rosso up to ninth place, though he was infuriated at being held up by Esteban Ocon at the end of the session. However team mate Brendon Hartley could only manage 16th, over half a second behind.
Charles Leclerc completed the top 10 for Sauber. For the first time this weekend Renault looked somewhere near competitive, Nico Hulkenberg missing out on a place in the top 10 by just 13 thousandths of a second.
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Third practice visual gaps
Sebastian Vettel – 1’07.948
+0.217 Lewis Hamilton – 1’08.165
+0.517 Valtteri Bottas – 1’08.465
+0.542 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’08.490
+0.785 Max Verstappen – 1’08.733
+0.840 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’08.788
+1.198 Kevin Magnussen – 1’09.146
+1.309 Romain Grosjean – 1’09.257
+1.454 Pierre Gasly – 1’09.402
+1.500 Charles Leclerc – 1’09.448
+1.513 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’09.461
+1.640 Esteban Ocon – 1’09.588
+1.860 Marcus Ericsson – 1’09.808
+1.916 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’09.864
+1.937 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’09.885
+2.037 Brendon Hartley – 1’09.985
+2.053 Lance Stroll – 1’10.001
+2.072 Fernando Alonso – 1’10.020
+2.168 Sergio Perez – 1’10.116
+2.341 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’10.289
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
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Combined practice times
| Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’09.060 | 1’08.919 | 1’07.948 | -0.971 | 79 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’09.107 | 1’08.849 | 1’08.165 | -0.684 | 86 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’09.679 | 1’08.846 | 1’08.465 | -0.381 | 94 |
| 4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’09.573 | 1’09.412 | 1’08.490 | -0.922 | 87 |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’09.011 | 1’09.339 | 1’08.733 | -0.278 | 56 |
| 6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’09.395 | 1’09.164 | 1’08.788 | -0.376 | 79 |
| 7 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’10.236 | 1’10.007 | 1’09.146 | -0.861 | 68 |
| 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’09.922 | 1’09.769 | 1’09.257 | -0.512 | 88 |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’10.934 | 1’10.330 | 1’09.402 | -0.928 | 96 |
| 10 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’10.346 | 1’09.943 | 1’09.448 | -0.495 | 93 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’10.679 | 1’11.674 | 1’09.461 | -1.218 | 59 |
| 12 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’10.361 | 1’10.159 | 1’09.588 | -0.571 | 97 |
| 13 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’10.532 | 1’09.808 | -0.724 | 67 | |
| 14 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’10.662 | 1’10.458 | 1’09.864 | -0.594 | 99 |
| 15 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’11.037 | 1’10.569 | 1’09.885 | -0.684 | 90 |
| 16 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’11.176 | 1’10.734 | 1’09.985 | -0.749 | 96 |
| 17 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’10.799 | 1’10.662 | 1’10.001 | -0.661 | 91 |
| 18 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’10.332 | 1’10.020 | -0.312 | 51 | |
| 19 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’10.320 | 1’10.116 | -0.204 | 41 | |
| 20 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’11.452 | 1’10.596 | 1’10.289 | -0.307 | 65 |
| 21 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’10.685 | 29 | |||
| 22 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault | 1’11.013 | 28 | |||
| 23 | Nicholas Latifi | Force India-Mercedes | 1’11.493 | 34 |
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2018 Brazilian Grand Prix
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- 2018 Brazilian Grand Prix Star Performers
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Jere (@jerejj)
10th November 2018, 15:07
Finally.
Understeer (@abdelilah)
10th November 2018, 15:15
How are we supposed to correlate the lap times without knowing the tyres ?
Jere (@jerejj)
10th November 2018, 15:35
@abdelilah TBH, it wouldn’t really matter even if the tyre compounds were shown as we still don’t know the fuel loads, or engine settings/maps, etc., anyway.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
10th November 2018, 15:43
I think everybody set their fastest time on SuperSofts.
Ajaxn
10th November 2018, 17:45
If Hamiltion is to pick up a grid penalty, shouldn’t he be thinking about what tires he starts the race on, whilst in q2?