Max Verstappen Tops Final Practice Session in Austin

Max Verstappen topped the final practice session ahead of the 2022 United States Grand Prix qualifying session.

Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas were the first drivers to see the track, with both going out on soft tyres. Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel weren’t too far behind, but they appeared to be doing race runs on the hard compound tyres.

The first action of the session saw Mick Schumacher having issues. The issues for the German driver were gearbox related with the Haas F1 Team driver reporting that he was having problems changing gear. The issue was later reported as an ERS water pump issue by Haas. That meant he got limited running time and that is no ideal with the German fighting to keep his seat in 2023.

Sergio Perez set the pace early, with a 1.37.338s, a tenth ahead of Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. It didn’t take long to switch around however, with World Champion Verstappen going four tenths faster than Leclerc’s best attempt.

Daniel Ricciardo was the next driver to have issues, reporting issues with the brake pedal. He lost a large amount of running, meaning the Australian was only able to complete fifteen laps.

Lewis Hamilton looked in good form for Mercedes, briefly going top of the time sheets and looking competitive throughout the session and managed to match the Ferrari’s and challenge the Red Bull’s. George Russell struggled to find his full pace however, with the Brit only managing to finish in seventh, behind Fernando Alonso, who has looked quick all weekend.

Carlos Sainz Jr. completed the most laps in the session and followed his Ferrari teammate home to a respectable third place. There was a double top ten finish for Aston Martin, with Vettel in eighth and Stroll in ninth. The British team are looking to charge into sixth place and overtake Alfa Romeo ORLEN F1 Team in the standings, and that is looking increasingly likely with Bottas only being able to finish eleventh and his teammate struggling to get any time on track, completing only three laps. Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten.

Williams Racing drivers Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi looked relatively uncompetitive with them finishing seventeenth and eighteenth respectively meaning a Q1 exit is likely.

A late run at the end of the session saw Verstappen go top of the time sheets, 0.320s ahead of Leclerc but the rest of the top five was closely contested with only 0.256s separating second placed Leclerc and fifth placed Hamilton.