Lewis Hamilton set the pace in the final practice session ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix despite a disjointed morning for the world champion at Interlagos.
Early in the session Hamilton stopped on track with gearbox concerns, saying he had lost gears before restarting and returning to the garage. Then on a later run on medium tyres he suffered a spin at Turn 11, sliding backwards in to the run-off area.
However, Hamilton managed to recover to set the fastest time on the soft tyre qualifying runs, getting the better of team-mate Nico Rosberg to the tune of 0.123s. Rosberg was still a further half second clear of Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari as Mercedes showed more impressive pace on Saturday.
Fourth was Kimi Raikkonen but the second Ferrari was over a second adrift of Hamilton's time, while Raikkonen's fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas finished the session fifth, just 0.01s clear of Nico Hulkenberg's Force India.
In a competitive session behind the leading two teams, Romain Grosjean was seventh fastest ahead of Sergio Perez, Pastor Maldonado and Max Verstappen, with all three within a quarter of a second of Bottas. Amid a sombre mood in the paddock, Grosjean was sporting the French flag on his arm following the attacks on Paris on Friday night.
Having looked competitive on Friday, Red Bull slipped back in the final session with Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat only finishing 11th and 13th respectively, sandwiching Felipe Massa in the second Williams. There were a number of lock-ups during the session with the track low on grip following heavy overnight rain, but only Grosjean going Hamilton on going off as he had an excursion at Turn 6 in the closing moments.
Fernando Alonso recovered from his lack of running in FP2 to end the session in 14th place. While the Spaniard was only half a second slower than Bottas in fifth, McLaren is likely to face a battle to get both cars in to Q2 with Jenson Button ending FP3 in 18th place and the team rarely able to make a step forward in qualifying.
Following three dry practice sessions, the teams will be keeping an eye on the weather ahead of qualifying with Thunderstorms forecast for some stage on Saturday afternoon.
AS IT HAPPENED: Brazilian Grand Prix FP3
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| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:12.070 | 16 |
| 02 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:12.193 | 19 |
| 03 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:12.760 | 19 |
| 04 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:13.096 | 20 |
| 05 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:13.335 | 25 |
| 06 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:13.345 | 19 |
| 07 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:13.437 | 19 |
| 08 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:13.506 | 18 |
| 09 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:13.534 | 20 |
| 10 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:13.548 | 21 |
| 11 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:13.572 | 23 |
| 12 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:13.742 | 24 |
| 13 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 1:13.829 | 17 |
| 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:13.850 | 19 |
| 15 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:13.959 | 23 |
| 16 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:14.185 | 23 |
| 17 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:14.288 | 22 |
| 18 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:14.445 | 17 |
| 19 | Will Stevens | Manor | 1:16.671 | 15 |
| 20 | Alexander Rossi | Manor | 1:17.059 | 15 |
