Posted on 25th October 2015
In the final practice session in Austin, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets ahead of his championship rival Sebastian Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg in a session that was affected by the wet weather in Texas.
With the weather in Austin still not improving; many thought that the session wouldn't be going ahead on safety grounds. However, the FIA announced shortly before the session began that the session would go ahead as planned; even if we may not see much action on the track.
During the session, we saw in the early stages both the Mercedes drivers of Hamilton and Rosberg going off the track, with Hamilton managing to get the car back under control as Rosberg hit the barriers through the Esses after aquaplaning and suffered front wing damage which needed him to come back to the pits to get it sorted.
With many drivers pushing the limits during the session to see where the grip, it would be easier not to list the drivers who went off the track during the session doing this. We also saw in the second half of the session Sebastian Vettel spinning at Turn 19 but managed to keep the Ferrari together and continued running in the session.
Within the space of a few minutes, Vettel had another spin which saw him going in the right direction but backwards. However, Vettel did manage to turn the car around and continue on with the session.
But it was Lewis Hamilton who topped the timesheets with a lap time of 1.59.517 ahead of Sebastian Vettel in second place who was 0.863 seconds behind him but was ahead of Nico Hulkenberg who finished in third place who was 0.979 seconds behind the Mercedes of Hamilton.
Valtteri Bottas finished the session in fourth place ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr in fifth place, Daniil Kvyat in sixth place and Kimi Raikkonen in seventh place. Daniel Ricciardo ended the session in eighth place ahead of Nico Rosberg in ninth place and Felipe Massa who rounds off the top ten finishers.
Sergio Perez ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Romain Grosjean in twelfth place, Pastor Maldonado in thirteenth place, Fernando Alonso in fourteenth place and ahead of Marcus Ericsson in fifteenth place. As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Jenson Button finished in sixteenth place ahead of Will Stevens in seventeenth place, Alexander Rossi in eighteenth place, Felipe Nasr in nineteenth place and Max Verstappen who rounded off the grid in twentieth place.
The classification of FP3 for the United States GP is as follows:-
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.59.517
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.863s
3. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 0.979s
4. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.006s
5. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.170s
6. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 1.177s
7. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1.268s
8. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1.491s
9. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.957s
10. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 2.682s
11. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 3.143s
12. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 3.308s
13. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 3.404s
14. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 3.858s
15. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 4.882s
16. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 5.766s
17. Will Stevens, Manor, 5.861s
18. Alexander Rossi, Manor, 6.090s
19. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 7.275s
20. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 10.477s
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
