US GP 2016, Practice Three: Red Bull ahead as Mercedes toil

Max Verstappen led a surprise Red Bull one-two in final practice for the US GP as Mercedes endured a messy end to their qualifying preparations and finished fourth and fifth.

Red Bull completed their qualifying simulations on the supersoft tyres earlier than their rivals to establish a one-two at the head of the order, with Mercedes leaving their runs until the closing minutes of the session.

Rosberg was the first to complete his lap and was a tenth adrift of Verstappen's benchmark time through the first two sectors before running wide at the penultimate corner and abandoning his lap.

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Hamilton then only crossed the start/finish line for his final timed lap within a second of the chequered flag coming out and was also a tenth off the Red Bull pace through the first two sectors. The world champion then slowed down after coming up behind a Sauber.

"That was really poor timing guys," bemoaned Hamilton over the radio at the end of the session as he stayed fourth on the timesheet.

It meant Mercedes unusually ended the session 0.7s adrift of the pace, although they had been the quickest runners on the soft tyre earlier on. Verstappen's time of 1:36.766 was 0.2s quicker than team-mate Daniel Ricciardo's and the best of the weekend so far.

Kimi Raikkonen was third for Ferrari on supersofts, half a second back on Verstappen, but team-mate Sebastian Vettel lost out on the final runs completely after his SF16-H suffered a loss of power. The Scuderia have suffered a number of gearbox failures in 2016.

Continuing a strong start to the weekend, Renault-bound Nico Hulkenberg was seventh for Force India, with the lead Williams of Valtteri Bottas closely matched with McLaren pair Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, who again both made the top 10.

At Toro Rosso, Carlos Sainz endured a disjointed session after he suffered two separate punctures on his STR11. When the second one struck the car's left-rear tyre, the disbelieving Spaniard exclaimed "what the f***?" 

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Meanwhile, Manor driver Pascal Wehrlein's preparations for qualifying were hampered when he spun off into the gravel at Turn 19.

Despite the car's rear wheels beaching into the stones, Wehrlein appeared not to have given up hope of rejoining the action and stayed in his cockpit with the still engine running.

The 22-year-old German had to be told five times by his race engineer over the radio to turn his car off. 

United States GP Practice Three timesheet
1. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 1:36.77, Superofts
2. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, + 0.266, Supersofts
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, + 0.518, Supersofts
4. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, + 0.717, Softs
5. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, + 1.018, Softs
6. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, + 1.127, Used Supersofts
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, + 1.182, Supersofts
8. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, + 1.422, Supersofts
9. Jenson Button, McLaren, + 1.466, Supersofts
10. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, + 1.686, Supersofts
11. Sergio Perez, Force India, + 1.746, Supersofts
12. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, + 1.762, Supersofts
13. Felipe Massa, Williams, + 1.841, Supersofts
14. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, + 1.925, Supersofts
15. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, + 1.944, Supersofts
16. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, + 2.173, Supersofts
17. Romain Grosjean, Haas, + 2.331, Used Supersofts
18. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, + 2.339, Supersofts
19. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, + 2.473, Supersofts
20. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, + 2.743, Supersofts
21. Esteban Ocon, Manor, + 3.005, Supersofts
22. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, + 4.661, Supersoft