AUSTIN, Texas -- Max Verstappen set the fastest time in final practice for the U.S. Grand Prix as both Mercedes drivers failed to post a representative lap time.
Verstappen's best lap of 1:36.766 was 0.226s clear of Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo in second and nearly 0.6s quicker than Nico Rosberg's best effort from Friday practice. Rosberg attempted a quick lap on the super-soft tyres at the end of FP3 and was only marginally slower than Verstappen through the first two sectors, but bailed out in sector three just as he came across a Haas on a slow lap.
Hamilton did not emerge for his qualifying simulation until the final two minutes of the session, meaning he had to rush his out-lap on the delicate super-soft tyres. He just crossed the line before the chequered flag came out but caught up with Sauber's Felipe Nasr in the final sector and also abandoned his lap.
Verstappen and Ricciardo set their super-soft laps earlier in the session, with Verstappen finding the vast majority of his time over Ricciardo in the middle sector. Ricciardo attempted a second lap on the same set of tyres, but came across Kimi Raikkonen in the Esses and had to mount a kerb to avoid the Ferrari.
Raikkonen finished the session third fastest, 0.518s off the pace, but his fastest lap was set after running wide at the penultimate corner. Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel failed to set a representative time after he was limited to just eight laps with gearbox trouble.
Nico Hulkenberg was seventh fastest for Force India and looks set to be in a close battle with Williams' Valtteri Bottas to be best of the rest behind the top three teams in qualifying. The McLarens both made it into the top ten, with Jenson Button 0.240s ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso.
Sergio Perez was 11th fastest in the second Force India ahead of an impressive lap from Renault's Jolyon Palmer in 12th. Felipe Massa was 13th after a wild hot lap in the Williams ahead, but was still quicker than the Toro Rossos of Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz. Sainz experienced two punctures during the session - one on the rear left and one on the rear right - limiting him to just six laps.
Haas made modest progress on its Friday practice performance with Esteban Gutierrez and Romain Grosjean in 16th and 17th ahead of the Renault of Kevin Magnussen and the two Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Nasr.
Esteban Ocon finished ahead of Manor teammate Pascal Wehrlein after the German spun 17 minutes into the session at the final corner and beached his car in the gravel. The session was red flagged for ten minutes while Wehrlein's car was recovered, but he was able to rejoin the session for a series of laps on the super-soft tyres at the end.