Max Verstappen proclaimed his Red Bull to be "miles better" after earlier expressing fears he would crash in final practice for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The three-time F1 champion embarked on a high-fuel long-run on medium tyres in the opening part of the hour-long session at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit. As the laps ticked by, and with the Dutchman clearly struggling, he radioed in his concern.
The chilly night air, allied to the low-grip surface, made for difficult on-track conditions. It led to a set-up change, and when he returned on soft tyres, Verstappen finally found time that will offer him a degree of confidence going into qualifying.
With over six minutes remaining, and with all the drivers on track and building towards posting qualifying-sim times, a red flag for a stricken Lance Stroll in his Aston Martin meant there was no opportunity for the majority of the drivers to set respecrtive times.
At that stage, George Russell was quickest in his Mercedes with a time of 1:33.570s ahead of McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris then sandwiching Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, leaving Verstappen fifth quickest.
Result Free practice 3 - Las Vegas
Verstappen bemoans 'undriveable' Red Bull early on
What was abundantly evident was that the track conditions were again treacherous, with drivers 'tip-toeing' around initially as they attempted to build heat into the tyres to cope with the cold, low-grip surface.
It was a slow start to the action, with only Sergio Perez posting a time in the opening 18 minutes, a slow 1:41.941s, and with only nine drivers having taken to the circuit during that period.
One of those was Verstappen. On medium tyres, the three-time champion continued to build temperature in his tyres, and was clearly on a race run, with his times similar to Perez's opener. On his fifth lap, Verstappen finally edged ahead of the Mexican with a time of 1:40.995s.
It was not until Yuki Tsunoda ventured out on the soft tyres that a more representative time was posted, with the RB driver setting a lap of 1:37.517s.
Soon after, and with only six laps on the board, Verstappen worryingly radioed to his team that his front-left tyre was dead, and the rears were close to following suit. Although the Dutch driver continued on regardless.
As the session progressed, naturally the times tumbled. With 25 minutes remaining, Haas' Kevin Magnussen was out in front with a 1:34.883s.
By that stage, Verstappen had finally boxed. Minutes earlier, he radioed in to say, "It's only getting worse. The car is undriveable."
Race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase urged him to continue, however, as part of the run plan. He said: "Just a couple more laps please Max. We need to make the best of this."
Verstappen, though, locked up heavily at one point, forcing him to take to the run-off area, at which point he bemoaned: "This is...I can't drive it. I'm going to crash. My left-front is completely f****d." To his relief, he was finally called in.
As Hamilton built up temperature in the Pirelli rubber, the Briton lowered the leading time by three-tenths of a second. Russell soon edged ahead, only for Hamilton to reclaim top spot with a 1:34.341s, albeit still half-a-second slower than his leading time on Friday.
With the track almost empty, Russell, though, pushed on again to beat Hamilton by over a tenth of a second.
At that point, Verstappen and Perez were on the track on softs, and after two laps to warm up the tyres, the Dutch driver finally offered a glimpse of optimism to go quickest with a 1:34.137s, radioing in that the car "felt miles better".
But with all the drivers on track in the closing stages in the qualifying sim runs, Verstappen soon dropped down the order to fifth when a red flag for Stroll pulling over in his Aston Martin stopped the session.
Behind the leading quintet was Hamilton, but without a final quick lap time, followed by Williams' duo Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto, ahead of Magnussen and Alpine's Pierre Gasly.
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