USA GP: Encouraging FP3 for Williams Martini

Team Summary:
Friday practice had seen the Williams Martini team finish in eighth and sixteenth with Felipe Massa ahead of Lance Stroll. With the start of the Saturday practice there would be a mix of tyre types been used by the drivers as they came out. Harley would set a 1m:41.499 in the Torro Rosso using the soft tyre. Sainz would go quicker using the ultra soft tyre with a 1m:37.125 followed by Hulkenberg. Sainz will improve with a 1m:36.813 but more drivers would go quicker with Vettel followed by Ricciardo and then Raikkonen going quickest. Raikkonen's time was a 1m:35.562. Bottas would move up to second followed by Hamilton with both on the ultra soft tyre. Vettel would move into third behind Bottas. But Bottas would go quickest with a 1m:35.545 but Hamilton would also improve with a 1m:35.125.

Twenty minutes into the session and neither Williams cars had returned to the track. Vettel was now in second followed by Bottas, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Ocon, Sainz, Perez, and Hulkenberg. The two Force India cars were on the super soft tyre. Alonso would move up to sixth behind Ricciardo. The Virtual Safety Car would come into effect with Grosjean going off and getting stuck in the gravel at Turn seven. The Hass was removed and the session went green again. Both Williams cars were quickly back out while Verstappen went second fastest with a 1m:35.217 but Vettel and Raikkonen would move into first and second with Vettel setting a 1m:34.570. But just as quickly Hamilton would set a 1m:34.478 to move up to the top of the times. Bottas was now third behind Vettel, with Raikkonen now fourth. The Williams drivers were seventh and ninth with fifteen minutes left in the session.

With five minutes remaining the order was Hamilton, Vettel, Bottas, Raikkonen, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Alonso, Felipe, Lance and Vandoorne. But Hulkenberg would move up to sixth and Sainz joining him in seventh. Ocon was now in eighth as other drivers wet out on their qualifying simulations. Perez was now in eighth and Ocon now ninth. For Williams the pair were now in sixth and twelfth as the session came to a close. An improvement from both drivers over their Friday pace which is very encouraging in the leadup to qualifying.

Felipe Massa:
Felipe would be first out for the Williams team running on new ultra soft tyres. Felipe would pit after a single lap. With thirty five minutes remaining Felipe would return still on the ultra soft tyre and Felipe's first lap was a 1m:36.956 to see him ninth. Felipe would pit after a four lap run. With the session going green Felipe was quickly back out running on the used ultra soft tyres. Felipe would improve with a 1m:36.260 to now be seventh. After his quicker lap Felipe would pit. He would drop to eighth to now be behind Alonso. But Felipe would come back out on a new set of ultra soft tyres and would set a 1m:35.346 to be an excellent sixth.

Lance Stroll:
Lance would follow his team-mate out but was on the soft tyre. He would also pit after a single lap. Just under thirty minutes remaining and Lance was out on the track also on the ultra soft tyre. Lance would pit without setting a time. Lance was back out joining his team-mate. Lance would set a 1m:36.421 to be ninth behind Alonso. With his team-mate in the pits Lance would continue to lap the circuit. Lance would pit after a six lap run on the ultra soft tyre. But Lance would quickly come back out running on a new set of ultra soft tyres. Lance would set a 1m:36.118 to now be tenth dropping to twelfth.