Charles Leclerc finished on top of the time charts at the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit in Mexico City in the third free practice session.
Sebastian Vettel completed a Ferrari 1-2 as he was just 0.027 seconds behind Leclerc. Valtteri Bottas was in third position with a 0.114 seconds gap from the fastest Ferrari.
The sixty-minute long final free practice session started on a wet track that dried up for the final fifteen minutes of the session. The air temperature was 17 degrees C and the track temperature was 21 degrees C.
The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C3), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C4).
The drivers came out on the intermediate tyres at the start of the session with big damp patches and standing water in some parts of the track.
The two Renault drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg, sat out the session as both their cars had a hydraulic issue caused by the pollution of the cooling system. Pierre Gasly also missed the early part of the session as the French driver was unwell.
Bottas set the initial pace as he went to the top of the time charts ahead of team-mate Hamilton. Drivers were going off the track with the slippery conditions that prevailed, but the track was drying up fast.
With fifteen minutes to go, Kimi Räikkönen was the first driver on the slick tyres as he went out on the soft compound tyres and went fastest.
Carlos Sainz with an impressive lap time of 1m16.638s went to the top of the time charts. Except the Mercedes drivers on the medium compound tyres, all the other drivers were on the soft compound tyres now.
When Bottas put on the soft compound tyres he went to the top of the time charts with Hamilton 0.122 seconds behind. In the dying minutes of the session, Leclerc set the fastest time just ahead of Vettel.
Mercedes was surprisingly close to the Ferrari pace. Sainz was impressive as he finished ahead of the Red Bull drivers in fifth position.
The qualification session is expected to be dry and an intriguing battle is on the cards between the top three teams.
2019 Mexican Grand Prix Free Practice 3 Results:
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