Hamilton tops FP3 at Austin as Leclerc leads provisional standings

Lewis Hamilton recorded the quickest time of 1:34.893 in the final practice session at the Circuit of the Americas, narrowing the gap to Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to 0.289 seconds. The provisional top ten after track-limit deletions included Leclerc, Hamilton, Kimi Antonelli, Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, Isack Hadjar, Logan Lawson and Oliver Bearman.

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli said the car felt better than in the first practice session and described the performance as a "step forward" after the team introduced a new front-wing option. He added that having both cars on the same specification allows the team to test more setups and improve understanding of the upgrade package.

Red Bull's Isack Hadjar described his Friday practice as "undriveable" after a significant loss of performance on the soft tyre compound, noting that the car required major adjustments to return to the level he achieved in the morning session.

Ferrari continued to work on side-pod updates, while Haas driver Oliver Bearman suffered a high-speed incident at Turn 7, prompting him to back off. Several drivers, including Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, had laps deleted for exceeding track limits.

The session set the stage for qualifying, with teams using the final practice to refine setups ahead of the sprint weekend.