Mexican GP: Verstappen outpaces Hamilton in tight FP3

The Red Bull driver clocked a 1m17.113s to finish just 0.075 seconds quicker than Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was third, ahead of Valtteri Bottas, the top four separated by just 0.170s.

Hamilton set the early pace on the ultrasoft tyres as a cool and breezy Mexico City circuit before Bottas snuck ahead by a tenth, with a 1m17.963s.

Bottas than completed a series of fast laps, improving to a 1m17.537s to open up a four tenth gap over his teammate only for Hamilton to reduce the deficit to three tenths.

The Red Bulls, running the supersofts, were best of the rest with Verstappen - who complained of struggling to get the front tyres to work - third and Ricciardo fourth.

When attention turned to qualifying simulations, Bottas improved by a tenth of a second, but that was comfortably beaten by Vettel when the latter bolted on a fresh set of ultrasofts.

Verstappen then snuck ahead on his low-fuel run by just 0.007s, having clocked the fastest first and second sectors.

Next time around, the Red Bull driver improved by a tenth of a second but there was more time to had after a big lock-up in the final sector.

Hamilton reported "power issues" on his first run, picking out Turn 7 as where he had the problem, and failing to improve on his earlier time.

He stayed out and improved by a fraction, but that was only good enough for sixth. Mercedes told him the issue has been spotted and it "is just going to require a calibration change".

Third time around, the championship leader made big gains and slotted into second, just 0.075s adrift of Verstappen.

Ricciardo was fifth quickest, a quarter of a second off the pace, with Kimi Raikkonen sixth, three tenths slower than Ferrari teammate Vettel.

Sergio Perez was best of the rest on home soil in seventh, nine tenths off the pace and one tenth clear of Force India teammate Esteban Ocon.

Renault's Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10.

Brendon Hartley continued to impress with the 11th quickest time but there was frustration for Toro Rosso teammate Pierre Gasly, who failed to set a time.

The Frenchman, who stepped aside for Sean Gelael in FP1 and completed just 10 laps in FP2, stopped in the stadium session reporting engine issues.

The team gave him a complex set of instructions of how to restart the car, but when that failed, it signalled the end of his session.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, who will take 20 and 35-place grid penalties respectively for engine component changes, were 18th and 19th respectively. 

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	20	1'17.113
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	23	1'17.188	0.075
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	21	1'17.230	0.117
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	18	1'17.283	0.170
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	10	1'17.361	0.248
6	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	27	1'17.517	0.404
7	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	20	1'18.040	0.927
8	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	18	1'18.165	1.052
9	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	Renault	21	1'18.208	1.095
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	21	1'18.380	1.267
11	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	Renault	23	1'18.602	1.489
12	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	23	1'18.690	1.577
13	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	20	1'19.066	1.953
14	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	19	1'19.205	2.092
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	27	1'19.331	2.218
16	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	22	1'19.565	2.452
17	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	22	1'19.586	2.473
18	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	Ferrari	16	1'19.826	2.713
19	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Honda	25	1'20.030	2.917
20	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	Renault	2