Vettel pulls clear in final Brazilian GP practice

Sebastian Vettel rose to the head of the Formula 1 field in final practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon at Interlagos, setting the fastest time of the weekend so far ahead of Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton.

After seeing Mercedes romp to a one-two finish in FP2 on Friday, Vettel and the Ferrari team were able to strike back in final practice as he pulled out two-tenths of a second over the rest of the pack.

A fastest lap of 1m07.948s on the Supersoft tyre gave Vettel P1 in FP3, with a rapid final sector being the key swing in the German driver’s favour.

Hamilton finished final practice in second place, lapping two-tenths of a second slower than the man he beat to this year’s F1 drivers’ championship.

Hamilton recovered from a scare early in the session after smoke was spotted coming from the rear of his car. Mercedes soon diagnosed this as being due to a dislodged breather pipe, which was quickly resolved to allow Hamilton to return to the track.

2017 Brazil pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas finished third-fastest, half a second down on Vettel, with compatriot Kimi Raikkonen closely following in fourth place for Ferrari.

Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Riccardo struggled to keep pace with the Mercedes and Ferraris through FP3, leaving them to settle for P5 and P6 respectively, more than three-quarters of a second off the pace.

Haas comfortably led the midfield runners once again in FP3 as Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean took seventh and eighth place respectively. They were followed by Pierre Gasly, who put the Spec 3 Honda power unit in his Toro Rosso car to good use en route to ninth, while Charles Leclerc completed the top 10 for Sauber.