Max finishes third in final free practice Mexico

Published on 29 October 2022 by Kees-Jan Koster

Max Verstappen finished the third and final free practice session for the Mexican Grand Prix in third position. On the high-altitude, 4,304 meter long Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, was George Russell in his Mercedes the quickest, followed by his teammate Lewis Hamilton in P2. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Max’ teammate at Oracle Red Bull Racing, Sergio Perez, completed the top five.

Because the second free practice session was mostly about testing the 2023 Pirelli tyres, the third free practice gained more value to prepare the cars for qualifying later in the day. At the start the weather is fine, a bit of sun, 19 degrees and a track temperature of 37 degrees. But there is a 40% chance of rain during the session.

It immediately gets busy on track, when the lights go green at the end of the pitlane. Both drivers of Alfa Romeo and Aston Martin come out first, and it is Valtteri Bottas who sets the first time. Teammate Guanyu Zhou comes back into the pits after he reported issues, after only one lap.

Max gets ready, ten minutes after the start. Twenty minutes have passed when the two-time world champion comes out on track on soft tyres. After his first timed lap he immediately takes P1. Behind him the Mercedes of Russell and the Red Bull of Perez.

After a short visit to the pits Max comes back out again on a set of tyres he already used on five laps previously. With well over twenty minutes to go, takes Russell P1 and Hamilton goes to P2, only a few drivers are still on track. Lando Norris also tries to go quicker than Max, but he does not come further than P4.

With fifteen minutes to go, comes Max back out on track. After the first sector he aborts the lap. “It is the same problem”, he informs his racing engineer. A little later Max improves his time on a new set of soft tyres, nevertheless he is a little under half a second slower than Russell and stays in third position. Max stays out for a while, which also indicates that he had quite a bit of fuel on board when he did his quick laps. With well over three minutes on the clock he returns to the pits. And that marks the end of the third free practice.

Contest GP Mexico: win a by Max Verstappen signed blue RBR Driver Cap 2022!

Results third free practice Mexico: