US GP FP3: Max Verstappen leads Red Bull one-two

With Red Bull on a pace comparable to Mercedes at Austin so far this weekend, Verstappen topped the timesheet with a lap of 1m36.766s to finish 0.266s clear of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, both on super-soft tyres.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was third, just over half a second down on Verstappen on his super-soft outing, leaving Hamilton and Rosberg down in fourth and fifth.

Hamilton, whose team broke curfew overnight to change the fuel system on his car, set the quickest time on soft tyres with a lap of 1m37.483s prior to the late qualifying runs that remained his best outing.

Come his super-soft run Hamilton was sent out late, and only just crossed the line to start his flying lap as the chequered flag came out.

Hamilton, however, was held up by Felipe Nasr's Sauber halfway through the lap and backed off, leaving him to tell his team on the radio it was "poor timing guys".

Rosberg, who was three tenths off of Hamilton on his best soft-tyre lap, opted to abort his super-soft run late on.

Rosberg had set a personal best in the first sector, which has proven to be Red Bull's strong suit so far, but he was still 0.154s down on Verstappen at that point.

Rosberg then went quickest in the middle sector to close the gap to Verstappen's best, but ultimately the championship leader failed to complete the lap, pulling into the pits instead after running slightly wide at the penultimate corner.

Sebastian Vettel was sixth quickest in his Ferrari, but he reported a potential gearbox problem and remained in the garage for the closing stages, finishing 1.128s down.

Vettel was followed by Force India's Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas in his Williams and the McLaren duo of Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso to complete the top 10.

Carlos Sainz Jr suffered two punctures during the session, initially to the right rear on only his second lap, and then half an hour later one to the left rear, leaving him down in 15th and unable to conduct his own qualifying simulation as the team checked over the car.

The hour-long session was red-flagged for 10 minutes early on after Manor's Pascal Wehrlein lost his car under braking at Turn 19, beaching it in the gravel.

With only four laps to his name, Wehrlein finished bottom of the timesheet just over five seconds off the pace.

FP3 TIMES