FP3 Results: Bottas ousts Hamilton by narrow margin

Valtteri Bottas was fastest in the third practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, edging out team-mate Lewis Hamilton by the narrowest of margins.

Bottas recorded a time of 1.09.281, three milliseconds ahead of Hamilton, but the most intruguing element of the practice was the performance of Ferrari.

Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel both recorded times within five one-hundreths of a second to the leading Mercedes duo, setting up an interesting qualification battle later this afternoon.

Daniel Ricciardo, who faces a 10-place grid penalty for the race itself, finished in fifth, a full second behind the leading quartet, while Fernando Alonso also found himself off the pace in sixth.

Red Bull suffered a subdued session, with Max Verstappen pushing to the limits and ultimately spun out after borrowing too much of the kerb, before taking his tyres across the wet grass to return to the pit lane.

Verstappen goes for a spin at Turn 13 ????#BrazilGP ???????? #FP3 pic.twitter.com/PZMK1cRQVZ — Formula 1 (@F1) November 11, 2017

LAP TIMES

1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:09.281
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:09.284 (+0.003)
3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:09.326 (+0.045)
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:09.339 (+0.058)
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:10.244 (+0.963)
6 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:10.288 (+1.007)
7 Sergio Perez Force India 1:10.322 (+1.041)
8 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:10.357 (+1.076)
9 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:10.495 (+1.214)
10 Carlos Sainz Renault Sport 1:10.599 (+1.318)
11 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:10.637 (+1.356)
12 Felipe Massa Williams 1:10.671 (+1.39)
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:10.721 (+1.44)
14 Nico Hulkenberg Renault Sport 1:10.743 (+1.462)
15 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:10.762 (+1.481)
16 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1:10.981 (+1.700)
17 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 1:11.085 (+1.804)
18 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber 1:11.126 (+1.845)
19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:11.480 (+2.199)
20 Lance Stroll Williams