Verstappen tops tense final practice at Mexico

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Mexico, Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguezmx

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was the fastest man in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix. He topped title challengers Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel with very small margins. Even Ricciardo in 5th was less than 0.25s behind the pace setter.

Verstappen proved agile and competitive yet again on the supersofts, before switching to ultrasofts and going fastest outright in 1:17.113.

Lewis Hamilton was behind Bottas for most of the session but a recalibration of his engine remedied his reported power issues, and saw him go second fastest, less than a tenth down on Verstappen. Vettel was a close third while Bottas and Ricciardo were similarly close, even despite the latter sitting out a large part of the session.

Home hero Sergio Perez remained equally competitive and was less than tenth faster than team mate Ocon to put Force India in 7th and 8th, ahead of the tightly matched Renault drivers.

Toro Rosso's Hartley ended up 11th fastest while team mate Gasly saw his session come to an early end with yet another mechanical issue.

Results

Pos.No.DriverCarTimeGapLaps
133Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:17.113-20
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:17.188+0.075s23
35Sebastian VettelFerrari1:17.230+0.117s21
477Valtteri BottasMercedes1:17.283+0.170s18
53Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:17.361+0.248s10
67Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:17.517+0.404s27
711Sergio PerezForce India Mercedes1:18.040+0.927s20
831Esteban OconForce India Mercedes1:18.165+1.052s18
955Carlos SainzRenault1:18.208+1.095s21
1027Nico HulkenbergRenault1:18.380+1.267s21
1128Brendon HartleyToro Rosso1:18.602+1.489s23
1219Felipe MassaWilliams Mercedes1:18.690+1.577s23
1318Lance StrollWilliams Mercedes1:19.066+1.953s20
1420Kevin MagnussenHaas Ferrari1:19.205+2.092s19
159Marcus EricssonSauber Ferrari1:19.331+2.218s27
1614Fernando AlonsoMcLaren Honda1:19.565+2.452s22
178Romain GrosjeanHaas Ferrari1:19.586+2.473s22
1894Pascal WehrleinSauber Ferrari1:19.826+2.713s16
192Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren Honda1:20.030+2.917s25
2010Pierre GaslyToro Rosso--2