FP3: Vettel puts himself in charge with new lap record!

Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheet in Saturday's final free practice session, edging Lewis Hamilton by 0.217s in a session dominated by a Ferrari-Mercedes quartet.

Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen lined up behind their leaders while Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were unable to challenge their rivals.

2018 Brazilian Grand Prix Free Practice 3 times

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:07.948s		17
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:08.165s	+ 0.217s	15
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:08.465s	+ 0.517s	23
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:08.490s	+ 0.542s	17
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:08.733s	+ 0.785s	12
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:08.788s	+ 0.840s	12
7	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:09.146s	+ 1.198s	14
8	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:09.257s	+ 1.309s	16
9	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:09.402s	+ 1.454s	22
10	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1:09.448s	+ 1.500s	21
11	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:09.461s	+ 1.513s	19
12	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:09.588s	+ 1.640s	18
13	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:09.808s	+ 1.860s	23
14	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:09.864s	+ 1.916s	17
15	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1:09.885s	+ 1.937s	14
16	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:09.985s	+ 2.037s	18
17	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:10.001s	+ 2.053s	17
18	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:10.020s	+ 2.072s	15
19	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:10.116s	+ 2.168s	18
20	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:10.289s	+ 2.341s	16

Wednesday at Interlagos dawned with typically Brazilian weather - warm and cloudy - and the usual threat of rain, but drivers made their way to a dry track for the final 60 minutes of free practice before this afternoon's crucial qualifying shootout.

Sauber's Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson were the first to head out but Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen punched in the first relevant time with a 1m09.424s on supersofts.

The Finn was quickly overhauled however by Sebastian Vettel who shaved 0.8s off his tea mate's time.

Gearbox change forces grid penalty on Ocon

Worries erupted in the Mercedes camp when Hamilton was called back to the pits where a diagnosis eventually revealed a dislodged breather pipe. The issues was diligently dealt with by the Silver Arrows squad, the Brit rejoining the action after a 20-minute delay.

In the interim, Bottas was snapping at Vettel's but unable to put in a faster lap than the German.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo slotted himself into fourth before Hamilton took up the spot to complete a Ferrari/Mercedes quartet.

With 20 minutes of running time left, Vettel put his head time and clocked in with a 1m07.948s lap under his belt that represented a new lap record of Interlagos

A lull in track activity encouraged Hamilton to tempt a lap on the supersofts. The effort brought an improvement but the Mercedes driver was still two tenths down on Vettel.

The indication in FP3 pointed to a two-way fight between Ferrari and Mercedes as the pair appeared out of reach of Red Bull, with Max Verstappen - the faster of the bulls - outpaced by 0.785s by Vettel.

Behind the top-six, Kevin Magnussen concluded the session as best of the rest, edging Haas team mate Romain Grosjean, while Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly and Sauber's Charles Leclerc rounded off the top-ten.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney