Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Interlagos, 2019

Hamilton edges Verstappen by two-hundredths as practice ends

2019 Brazilian Grand Prix third practice

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Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen ended the final practice session on top of the times, the Mercedes driver ahead by just two-hundredths of a second.

But the Ferrari pair behind them showed better pace than the headline times at the end of the session indicated.

The track conditions continued to improve after yesterday’s rain and the teams found significant chunks of time with every run. Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel did their final new-tyre runs of the session with 20 minutes left, yet ended up around three-tenths of a second off Hamilton’s pace on his later laps.

Hamilton and Verstappen’s team mates were next, each around eight-tenths of a second slower than the team’s other car.

Behind the usual top six, Toro Rosso bounced back after their disappointing Friday, with Daniil Kvyat leading the midfield. But it remained very close among the remaining teams, bar Williams, with less than six-tenths of a second covering Kvyat in seventh back to Sergio Perez 11 places behind him.

Antonio Giovinazzi put his Alfa Romeo an encouraging eighth ahead of the McLaren pair. Carlos Sainz Jnr spent a significant chunk of the session on medium tyres as the team evaluated a set-up change, but expressed doubt over whether it had improved the MCL34.

The Williams pair brought up the rear of the field again. George Russell was still unhappy with his car’s lack of grip, but at least managed to get within a second of the Racing Points.

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Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’08.32017
233Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’08.3460.02618
316Charles LeclercFerrari1’08.6110.29120
45Sebastian VettelFerrari1’08.6640.34422
523Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda1’09.1360.81617
677Valtteri BottasMercedes1’09.2010.88120
726Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Honda1’09.4151.09522
899Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’09.4621.14220
94Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’09.5851.26518
1055Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’09.5881.26821
117Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’09.6191.29921
1210Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’09.6251.30519
1327Nico HulkenbergRenault1’09.6501.33017
1420Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’09.7131.39318
153Daniel RicciardoRenault1’09.7611.44117
168Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’09.7981.47820
1711Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’09.9951.67519
1818Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’10.3121.99216
1963George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’10.8432.52319
2088Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes1’11.2052.88523

Third practice visual gaps

Lewis Hamilton – 1’08.320

+0.026 Max Verstappen – 1’08.346

+0.291 Charles Leclerc – 1’08.611

+0.344 Sebastian Vettel – 1’08.664

+0.816 Alexander Albon – 1’09.136

+0.881 Valtteri Bottas – 1’09.201

+1.095 Daniil Kvyat – 1’09.415

+1.142 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’09.462

+1.265 Lando Norris – 1’09.585

+1.268 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’09.588

+1.299 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’09.619

+1.305 Pierre Gasly – 1’09.625

+1.330 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’09.650

+1.393 Kevin Magnussen – 1’09.713

+1.441 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’09.761

+1.478 Romain Grosjean – 1’09.798

+1.675 Sergio Perez – 1’09.995

+1.992 Lance Stroll – 1’10.312

+2.523 George Russell – 1’10.843

+2.885 Robert Kubica – 1’11.205

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’09.4401’08.320-1.1259
2Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’09.3511’08.346-1.00554
3Charles LeclercFerrari1’17.2851’09.2381’08.611-0.62768
4Sebastian VettelFerrari1’17.0411’09.2171’08.664-0.55365
5Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda1’16.1421’10.2751’09.136-1.13957
6Valtteri BottasMercedes1’16.6931’09.3731’09.201-0.17267
7Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Honda1’18.2741’10.4241’09.415-1.00972
8Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’19.6001’10.4191’09.462-0.95774
9Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’18.5591’10.7001’09.585-1.11574
10Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’17.7861’10.3101’09.588-0.72275
11Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’19.5321’10.2101’09.619-0.59172
12Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’18.1001’10.3521’09.625-0.72762
13Nico HulkenbergRenault1’17.8991’10.3251’09.650-0.67556
14Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’19.2471’10.1431’09.713-0.4366
15Daniel RicciardoRenault1’17.9851’10.1941’09.761-0.43358
16Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’10.5041’09.798-0.70661
17Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’10.4431’09.995-0.44851
18Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’19.4141’10.5681’10.312-0.25655
19George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’18.7791’11.8181’10.843-0.97573
20Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes1’11.20525
21Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1’20.01016

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2019 Brazilian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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5 comments on “Hamilton edges Verstappen by two-hundredths as practice ends”

  1. I wonder how much we didn’t see of Ferrari’s performance there. I predicted Vettel for pole in my Fantasy F1 team.

    Should he an interesting start with the top 3 teams so close, and LeClerk starting a few places back with some quick midfielders in the way all battling for constructors points.

    1. It’ll be interesting to see who gets a massive tow in qualy

  2. With LeClerk’s penalty, it makes sense for him to assist Vettel.

    But with 3rd in the Driver’s championship so close, he may not want to!!!

    1. Leclerc

Comments are closed.