Verstappen sixth in final free practice Mexico

Published on 26 October 2019 by Kees-Jan Koster

Max Verstappen finished the third free practice session for the Mexican Grand Prix as sixth. The Dutchman started the session, as all the other drivers, on intermediates and did in the end twelve laps. When the track dried Verstappen set a 1:16.903 as his quickest time, on a set of soft tyres. Ferrari with Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel were on top just in front of Mercedes.

It is 10:00 AM local time when the final free practice session starts. Romain Grosjean and some other drivers come straight out on track. Because the track is still wet, we see mainly green intermediate tyres on the cars.

Also Max Verstappen comes out on the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in this phase of the practice session. The Dutchman is after his teammate the second driver to set a lap time. After the first fifteen minutes Max is leading with a 1:26.118.

The first thirty minutes of the third free practice are characterised by drivers who try to find grip on the drying circuit. Except for some excursions along the track there are no major incidents. In the following period it is very quiet on the circuit in Mexico City. Only eight drivers have set a time so far.

With fifteen minutes to go things start to change, when we see the first sets of slicks put on the cars. That this is a much quicker tyre is soon clear when Kimi Raikkonen improves the time set by Verstappen with more than four seconds. Also Max comes out on track again and sets a new time of 1:16.903 putting him in the lead again.

The Dutchman is on its way to improve his time during the final seconds of the session, but a slow Alfa Romeo interferes, and he has to abort. Verstappen finishes the session as sixth. Ferrari is with Charles Leclerc (P1) and Sebastian Vettel (P2) the quickest. The drivers of Renault do not set a time because of technical issues.

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Results third free practice Mexico: