Hamilton closes out Brazilian GP practice fastest

Lewis Hamilton closed out practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix at the top of the timesheets for Mercedes, albeit with Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel all for close company at Interlagos.

After seeing Ferrari sweep to a one-two finish in FP2 on Friday at Interlagos, Hamilton and Mercedes managed to strike back through FP3 by surging to the head of the field.

Hamilton recorded a fastest lap time of 1m08.320s in the Mercedes W10 to edge out Red Bull driver Verstappen by just 0.026 seconds in final practice, acting as a boost for the six-time world champion heading into qualifying later today.

The Ferrari duo of Leclerc and Vettel were unable to repeat their Friday escapades, ending practice third and fourth respectively around three-tenths off Hamilton's time.

The Friday trend of Ferrari setting the pace on the straights continued, with both drivers setting purple sectors through the final run from Juncao to the finish line, only for Hamilton and Verstappen to claw back some lap time through the tight middle sector.

Red Bull's Alexander Albon and Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas both struggled to match their teammates for pace through final practice. Albon finished fifth, eight-tenths of a second back from Hamilton, while Bottas was a further tenth off the pace in sixth.

Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat topped the midfield fight in FP3, taking seventh ahead of Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi, while the Mclaren duo of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz were able to complete the top 10.

Qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix gets underway at 1800 GMT on Saturday (1500 local time).