Verstappen has slight edge over frustrated Lewis
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen completed a practice hat-trick for the Mexican Grand Prix after edging out Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.
Under overcast skies, and on a drying circuit, Verstappen again held the advantage at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
But Verstappen, 21, finished just 0.254 seconds clear of Hamilton, with Mercedes having taken a step forward overnight. Vettel was 0.282 sec off the pace.
Hamilton needs to finish only seventh to be sure of his fifth world championship, while Ferrari’s Vettel must win today to stand any chance of taking the title fight on to Brazil.
Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, while Charles Leclerc, bound for Ferrari next season, finished an impressive sixth.
Valtteri Bottas stopped on track with a hydraulics problem, and his Mercedes crew now face a race against time to get his car ready.
Following a wet start to the session, Hamilton completed just one lap, waving to the crowd, before returning to his garage.
The Briton then took a swipe at the sport’s governing body – and Pirelli for not providing enough tyres for the slippery track.
“I’m sorry to all the fans sitting out there as there’s been no running yet,” he wrote on Instagram.
“The FIA/Pirell won’t give the teams an extra set of tyres to run in these conditions so we are forced to just sit tight and save the tyres we have in case rain comes in qualifying and the race.”
Later, and with the track suitable for dry tyres, Hamilton emerged in the final 10 minutes of the one-hour session to run Verstappen close at the top of the order.
Earlier, Hamilton admitted he feared he will not win his fifth world championship in style after claiming the rampant Red Bull cars will be out of reach in Mexico.
“Red Bull seem out of our reach at the moment,” Hamilton said. “Ferrari are right there with us, but we’re here to try and compete, so we will do the best we can to have a real race.
“We’ve got some ground to catch up on, so we will go through everything in the debrief, and look at all the details to find some answers.”
Earlier in the week, Verstappen, who triumphed in Mexico last year, vowed to spoil Hamilton’s party.