Lewis Hamilton was fastest in every practice session for the United States Grand Prix as the championship leader ran a lap at 1:37.107 seconds in third practice, by far the fastest of the weekend. Hamilton did spin during the session entering turn twelve but suffered no damage. His Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg was second fastest, 0.883 seconds behind. Rosberg ran 12 laps in the session, the fewest of all the drivers. The Williams team followed with Felipe Massa third, 1.107 seconds back of Hamilton and Valterri Bottas fourth, nearly another quarter of a second behind. Fernando Alonso rounded out the top five.
Daniel Ricciardo was sixth fastest with the Germans Nico Hülkenberg and Adrain Sutil in tow. Sutil ran a 1:39.000. Kimi Räikkönen was 0.143 seconds behind Sutil in ninth with Jenson Button rounding out the top ten. Button's McLaren teammate Kevin Magnussen followed in eleventh with the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado in twelfth. Romain Grosjean made it consecutive Lotus with the Frenchman in thirteenth.
Sergio Pérez was fourteenth ahead of Daniil Kvyatt, Esteban Gutiérrez was sixteenth ahead of Jean-Éric Vergne and Sebastian Vettel. Vettel was 6.658 seconds behind Hamilton but the German will not be participating in the qualifying session because he will be forced to start from the pit lane regardless of what he did in the session due to changing to his sixth power unit, one more than the regulations allow. Vettel did run 25 laps, the most laps during the session. Jenson Button will have to serve a five-grid spot penalty for changing a gearbox.
Vettel is the only driver to have won pole at Circuit of the Americas meaning someone will get their first career pole at Austin. Hamilton has started second and fifth in two starts. Nico Rosberg has never made it to Q3 at Austin.
Third practice will air at 1:00 p.m. ET on NBC and will be followed by Formula One qualifying at 2:00 p.m. ET.
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