US GP: Vettel leads Ferrari 1-2 in final practice

Vettel outpaced Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen by less than a tenth, while championship leader and Friday pacesetter Lewis Hamilton jumped to third late on as Ferrari and Mercedes adopted different approaches to an unusually busy Saturday practice.

After both Friday practices took place in wet conditions, there was a flurry of activity at the start of FP3 with qualifying and the race due to be held in the dry.

The Ferraris were alone in using the ultrasoft tyres at first as others focused on longer runs, with Raikkonen heading Vettel by just 0.04s after their first efforts.

Race preparations meant there was little of note in the first half an hour, although Raikkonen did improve to a 1m34.419s, while Bottas and Fernando Alonso engaged in an odd wheel-to-wheel scrap when Alonso dived inside the Mercedes into Turn 1 and Bottas repassed the McLaren around the outside into Turn 2.

Mercedes told Bottas Alonso was "playing games" as it continued to focus on long runs, but that changed in the second half-hour when a flurry of fast laps were carried out.

Bottas avoided the ultrasofts but did push on supersofts, setting a 1m34.446s, while Hamilton made a small mistake on his first push lap and then posted a time one tenth slower than his teammate after a couple of laps at lower speed.

The Ferraris completed their third runs on fresh ultrasofts of the session, and Vettel used this to finally leapfrog Raikkonen into P1 by 0.046s on 1m33.797s.

That remained the benchmark to the end, although a late effort from Hamilton got him ahead of teammate Bottas.

Hamilton threatened to go fastest having set the best middle sector of the session with two minutes to go but eventually lapped a tenth off Vettel after losing time at the end of the lap.

He ended up within a tenth of his title rival and 0.7s clear of Bottas, who set his best time on supersofts.

The Red Bulls trailed a few tenths behind Bottas, Max Verstappen leading Daniel Ricciardo, while Charles Leclerc snuck to the front of the best-of-the-rest battle in a whirlwind of last-gasp improvement.

Leclerc's 1m35.365s put him half a tenth clear of Sergio Perez as Carlos Sainz and Romain Grosjean lapped within and just outside a tenth of the Sauber driver respectively. 

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	20	1'33.797
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	21	1'33.843	0.046
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	23	1'33.870	0.073
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	21	1'34.556	0.759
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	21	1'34.703	0.906
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	20	1'34.910	1.113
7	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	Ferrari	21	1'35.365	1.568
8	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	21	1'35.411	1.614
9	Carlos Sainz	Renault	Renault	21	1'35.450	1.653
10	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	19	1'35.468	1.671
11	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	22	1'35.562	1.765
12	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	Honda	27	1'35.713	1.916
13	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	19	1'35.770	1.973
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	19	1'35.882	2.085
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	21	1'36.000	2.203
16	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	21	1'36.188	2.391
17	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	Mercedes	20	1'36.193	2.396
18	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Renault	23	1'36.302	2.505
19	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	Honda	26	1'36.330	2.533
20	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Renault	20	1'36.332	2.535