Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, Interlagos, 2018

Vettel leads Hamilton and breaks Interlagos track record

2018 Brazilian Grand Prix third practice

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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.

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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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Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
15Sebastian VettelFerrari1’07.94817
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’08.1650.21715
377Valtteri BottasMercedes1’08.4650.51723
47Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’08.4900.54217
533Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’08.7330.78512
63Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’08.7880.84012
720Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’09.1461.19814
88Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’09.2571.30916
910Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’09.4021.45422
1016Charles LeclercSauber-Ferrari1’09.4481.50021
1127Nico HulkenbergRenault1’09.4611.51319
1231Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’09.5881.64018
139Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’09.8081.86023
1455Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’09.8641.91617
1535Sergey SirotkinWilliams-Mercedes1’09.8851.93714
1628Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Honda1’09.9852.03718
1718Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’10.0012.05317
1814Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Renault1’10.0202.07215
1911Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’10.1162.16818
202Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Renault1’10.2892.34116

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

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Sebastian VettelFerrari1’09.0601’08.9191’07.948-0.97179
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’09.1071’08.8491’08.165-0.68486
3Valtteri BottasMercedes1’09.6791’08.8461’08.465-0.38194
4Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’09.5731’09.4121’08.490-0.92287
5Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’09.0111’09.3391’08.733-0.27856
6Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’09.3951’09.1641’08.788-0.37679
7Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’10.2361’10.0071’09.146-0.86168
8Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’09.9221’09.7691’09.257-0.51288
9Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’10.9341’10.3301’09.402-0.92896
10Charles LeclercSauber-Ferrari1’10.3461’09.9431’09.448-0.49593
11Nico HulkenbergRenault1’10.6791’11.6741’09.461-1.21859
12Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’10.3611’10.1591’09.588-0.57197
13Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’10.5321’09.808-0.72467
14Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’10.6621’10.4581’09.864-0.59499
15Sergey SirotkinWilliams-Mercedes1’11.0371’10.5691’09.885-0.68490
16Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Honda1’11.1761’10.7341’09.985-0.74996
17Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’10.7991’10.6621’10.001-0.66191
18Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Renault1’10.3321’10.020-0.31251
19Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’10.3201’10.116-0.20441
20Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Renault1’11.4521’10.5961’10.289-0.30765
21Antonio GiovinazziSauber-Ferrari1’10.68529
22Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’11.01328
23Nicholas LatifiForce India-Mercedes1’11.49334

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2018 Brazilian Grand Prix

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Author information

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 “Vettel leads Hamilton and breaks Interlagos track record”

  1. Profile Photo

    Jere (@jerejj)
    10th November 2018, 15:07

    Finally.

  2. Profile Photo

    Understeer (@abdelilah)
    10th November 2018, 15:15

    How are we supposed to correlate the lap times without knowing the tyres ?

    1. Profile Photo

      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.

    2. Profile Photo

      MG1982 (@mg1982)
      10th November 2018, 15:43

      I think everybody set their fastest time on SuperSofts.

  3. 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?

Comments are closed.