Hamilton fastest in third practice ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc
It was a very slow start to the final hour of practice at the Circuit of the Americas with Cadillac's Sergio Perez and Alpine's Franco Colapinto as the only cars to make their way to the track in the opening eight minutes.
Joining his teammate on the circuit, Pierre Gasly was the fastest car on track after setting a 1:37.592 on medium compound tyres soon after exiting the pit-lane. However, this was soon beaten by Lewis Hamilton with a 1:36.716 on soft compound tyres, the first representative run of qualifying laps later in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, a pit-lane incident was noted between Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll as the two cars had a small incident as they were looking to exit the pit-lane. On-track, Liam Lawson delivered a 1:36.420 to go to the top of the timesheets with reigning world champion Lando Norris beating this with a 1:36.066. Unfortunately for Norris, this lap-time was deleted due to a track limits violation.
All previous times were quickly beaten by Verstappen who was able to set a 1:35.702 on medium tyres, the non-preferred tyre for qualifying. Charles Leclerc got within 0.260 seconds of Verstappen on medium tyres however, like Norris, this time was deleted.
Following their good pace from yesterday, Ferrari seem well in the fight for pole position and the race win on Sunday as Hamilton beat his teammate with a 1:35.561 at the 40-minute mark. Also at the 40 minute mark, both Racing Bulls cars were in the top seven to demonstrate their pace on a weekend where they are hoping to extend their advantage in the Constructors' championship over Alpine.
At the halfway mark for the session, 10 cars were in the pit-lane with the other 12 continuing their run plans out on-track. The top three at this stage of the session were Hamilton, Verstappen and Norris with four different Constructors in the top four as Mercedes' George Russell was 0.318 seconds off the pace.
On his first opportunity to seal his maiden Championship title this weekend in Austin, Kimi Antonelli put himself second and in between the two Ferraris of Leclerc ahead and Hamilton behind. However, in keeping with their performance expectations this weekend, Hamilton jumped the Italian driver in the timesheets and moved to within two-tenths of his teammate.
With 25 minutes on the clock, Leclerc retained his position at the top of the timesheets however failed to go quicker than his previous time of 1:35.127. The Monegasque driver has had five front-row starts in 2026 however is yet to qualify on pole which could change this weekend based on their performance so far.
At the other end of the order, Cadillac as one of two American teams on the grid seemed to struggle at their second home race with Perez and Valterri Bottas almost four seconds off the pace in 21st and 22nd respectively. Williams, who also struggled so far this weekend, were 18th with Carlos Sainz who was 2.272s off the pace and 19th with Alex Albon 3.168s off.
In the final 20 minutes of the session, Russell improved dramatically as he jumped into third place as his teammate Antonllei moved to the top of the field with a 1:35.015 which was later deleted due to track limits. Although Verstappen set an impressive lap-time, Hamilton was quick to become the first driver in the session to set a 1:34.893.
Despite a decent start to the weekend with Norris in the top three in FP1, McLaren seemed to struggle in the final hour of practice with clear issues for both Norris and Oscar Piastri in the slow-speed corners. Similar to McLaren, Mercedes with Russell and Antonelli failed to show the pace which has propelled their team to the top of the standings in the Constructors' championship as they languished in fourth and fifth.
Although Leclerc went fastest with a 1:34.810 in the final 10 minutes of the session, like many of his previous laps in the session, this time was deleted with Hamilton retaining his position at the top. For Leclerc's teammate Hamilton, a fast-lap run was abandoned due to being blocked by Bortoleto being on the racing line.
While Verstappen was comfortably in second, the final five minutes of the session saw Isack Hadjar struggling as a snap of oversteer saw him go wide in the second to last corner. Even in similar conditions to his teammate, the French driver was unable to do better than 10th and remained 1.037s off the pace.
On their final runs, there was a small incident between Hadjar and Albon however there was no further action for either driver. Haas, the other American team to celebrate their home Grand Prix, were not able to impress in front of the crowd as Ollie Bearman finished in 14th and Esteban Ocon in 17th.
With the chequered flag waved to bring the final hour of practice to an end, it was Hamilton who set the fastest time followed by Verstappen and Leclerc who completed the top three. In total, there were 42 track infringements with some drivers losing very quick lap-times. As such, there is bound to be an exciting qualifying session up next.
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