Brazilian GP: Hamilton edges Verstappen in FP3

Hamilton's 1m08.320s shaded Verstappen by just 0.026s ahead of qualifying at Interlagos, with Ferrari slightly adrift of its two rivals.

Verstappen headed the order at the halfway stage of the session after emerging on top of the first set of soft-tyre runs.

His 1m109.063s was the second of two laps that put him quickest after taking to the track later than his rivals.

Hamilton was 0.391s behind as Mercedes opted for a third flying lap for each of its drivers on the same set of tyres.

The Ferraris were shuffled back to more than half a second slower than Verstappen at this stage, but moved to the top by kicking off the second round of qualifying simulations.

Leclerc outpaced Vettel by half a tenth, while Vettel failed to improve by 0.005s after two cool-down laps and a second flier.

However, Hamilton swiftly knocked Leclerc off top spot with a 1m08.320s that beat the Ferrari by almost three tenths of a second.

Valtteri Bottas failed to make similar ground in the other Mercedes, posting a personal best but lapping almost a second slower than Hamilton after running wide exiting the left-hander at the end of the first sector.

Verstappen's final qualifying simulations started strongly with the best first sector of anyone, but he lost time to Hamilton in the middle part of the lap and wound up 0.026s adrift.

Another fastest first sector followed, but the lap fell away again and he just failed to improve.

Alex Albon, who was well behind Verstappen after their first efforts, improved twice on his second set to jump Bottas into fifth, although still wound up 0.8s off the pace.

Behind the big three teams, Daniil Kvyat recovered from his Friday off to set the fastest time among the midfielders.

The Toro Rosso driver was just two tenths slower than Albon, and half a tenth clear of Antonio Giovinazzi's Alfa Romeo.

McLaren duo Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz completed the top 10.

At the foot of the times, Robert Kubica finally completed his first timed laps of the weekend.

Kubica had missed FP1 so reserve driver Nicholas Latifi could take part, then crashed heavily at the start of FP2.

The damage required Williams to switch Kubica to a new chassis, which he used to complete 23 laps – more than any other driver – on his way to the slowest time, three tenths behind teammate George Russell.

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	17	1'08.320
2	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	18	1'08.346	0.026
3	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	20	1'08.611	0.291
4	Sebastian Vettel		Ferrari	22	1'08.664	0.344
5	Alex Albon		Red Bull	17	1'09.136	0.816
6	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	20	1'09.201	0.881
7	Daniil Kvyat		Toro Rosso	22	1'09.415	1.095
8	Antonio Giovinazzi		Alfa Romeo	20	1'09.462	1.142
9	Lando Norris		McLaren	18	1'09.585	1.265
10	Carlos Sainz Jr.		McLaren	21	1'09.588	1.268
11	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	21	1'09.619	1.299
12	Pierre Gasly		Toro Rosso	19	1'09.625	1.305
13	Nico Hulkenberg		Renault	17	1'09.650	1.330
14	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	18	1'09.713	1.393
15	Daniel Ricciardo		Renault	17	1'09.761	1.441
16	Romain Grosjean		Haas	20	1'09.798	1.478
17	Sergio Perez		Racing Point	19	1'09.995	1.675
18	Lance Stroll		Racing Point	16	1'10.312	1.992
19	George Russell		Williams	19	1'10.843	2.523
20	Robert Kubica		Williams	23	1'11.205	2.885
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