George Russell, who is 102 points behind Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli heading into the United States Grand Prix weekend, moves up to third on the timing tower, 0.366 seconds off the Italian's best time. Antonelli tells his pit wall he can't get any more out of the car.

Damon Hill
1996 world champion on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra in Austin

Kimi Antonelli has done the fastest first sector but I was just watching his head bounce around, the bumps are so bad out there.

Ferrari are looking strong at the Circuit of the Americas, but are you confident either Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton could claim pole position later on?

Kimi Antonelli has headed out on the soft compound and is just starting a flying lap - and he's purple in the first sector already. Track limits has been the Italian's Achilles heel this season, so can he keep this one clean and tidy?

Antonelli goes purple in the middle sector and by the end of the lap, he's on top of the timesheets with a 1:35.015.

Storm Boelo is bringing more wet and windy weather to large parts of the UK today but over in Austin, the weather is fine and dry for Saturday's third practice and qualifying session.

As for the tyres this weekend, Pirelli have selected the C2 as the hard, the C3 as the medium and the C4 as the soft. All three compounds were used during Friday's track action, with a one-stop using the softs and mediums the most likely race strategy.

Frenchman Isack Hadjar struggled with with overheating front tyres, telling his Red Bull pit wall his run on the soft tyre was "just a disaster".

1. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - 1:35.127

2. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.289

3. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.326

4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.444

5. Lando Norris (McLaren) +0579

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Austin

This is the first year of a new regulation set and often Pirelli are a bit conservative with their tyre compound choices because they're never quite sure the performance the team's are going to have. The tyres are a compound grade harder than they were last year.

There is improvement for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton on his latest lap on the soft tyre, but he's still 0.289 seconds off Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc. Hamilton was purple in the first sector but just lost a bit of time in the middle.

George Russell, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg have skipped forward to Sunday and are almost side-by-side on track. Russell is ahead of the Haas and Audi, so Hulkenberg takes the opportunity to overtake on the outside of Ocon. "Yeah, that's unecessary," says Ocon's engineer.

Damon Hill
1996 world champion on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra in Austin

As an experienced grand prix driver I've been through all of the emotional ups and downs but I think George Russell will be looking at this season thinking 'wow, what happened, where did it all go so wrong?' But he's got more than a better chance at stopping the championship being settled here.

Max Verstappen: "Nice! Yeah, **** this. Honestly! It's stupid, it's so dumb. Why are the shifts so bad?"

Image source, Getty Images

Now this one sticks.

Charles Leclerc puts a smooth run together on the mediums and is able to jump above Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton - and now title leader Kimi Antonelli - by 0.326 seconds.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Austin

That flo-vis paint on the Ferraris is because they have upgrades here this weekend. A new floor and sidepod inlet and diffuser. Usually quite a big upgrade when that happens but both Leclerc and Hamilton have been talking it down all weekend. Some people in the paddock have been saying it's the biggest upgrade the team have brought all year but Hamilton is saying it's only worth half a tenth.

Charles Leclerc just can't get a lap on the board so far. The Ferrari driver oversteps the mark once again on his medium-tyre run and has his time scrubbed from the timesheets.

Image source, Getty Images

As one Ferrari props up the timesheets, the other is riding high at the top. Lewis Hamilton is taking the softs out for a spin and is able to beat Max Verstappen's medium time by 0.141 seconds.

George Russell is next to complete his flying lap and the Mercedes goes third on the softs, which is now fourth following Lando Norris' latest attempt on the red rubber.

Verstappen is on the radio to his Red Bull engineer to say the gear shifts are terrible, so in comes the Dutchman to the pits to see what the problem is.

Damon Hill
1996 world champion on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra in Austin

Both Ferraris have run hi-vis telltale fluid that they put on the side of the car, so this lovely red Ferrari is now covered in this lime green juice all down one side. They'll be looking at that and trying to work out what aerodynamically needs tending to. Ferrari are interested in what is going on with their sidepods.

Max Verstappen is a medium runner in the early stages of third practice and the Dutchman puts down a marker of 1:35.702 to go to the top of the timesheets.

Charles Leclerc, who was quickest on Friday and is also on the medium tyre, goes second behind Verstappen, but the Monegasque driver's lap time is deleted for track limits, so down the board he goes.

Lewis Hamilton has joined the action on a set of the soft C4 tyres but as he does his out lap, a big puff of smoke comes out the rear of his Ferrari. It hasn't slowed the seven-time world champion down, though, as he goes to the top of the pile with his opening flyer with a time of 1:36.716.

Liam Lawson then goes quicker in the Racing Bulls on the mediums but now it's world champion Lando Norris' turn to be the fastest man on track. But hang on, the McLaren driver, who is on the softs, has been flagged for track limits at Turn 12, and now his lap time is deleted.

Damon Hill
1996 world champion on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra in Austin

Williams have work to do. They know that only so much can be done with this season's car and they want to build a foundation for the future, so resources are going elsewhere

Image source, Getty Images

Williams used Friday's first hour of practice as a learning session, trying to understand the limitations of the car for the remainder of the season and also looking ahead to next year.

Both Carlos Sainz and team-mate Alex Albon finished towards the bottom of the timesheets on Friday, with Albon in particular struggling to control his car and going off the track, eventually finishing P22 in second practice.

Spaniard Sainz was honest with his team over the radio, saying his car was a "mess" and he had "no confidence" in it.

Williams have scored only 12 points so far this year and are behind the likes of newcomers Audi in the constructors' championship. “We know that we’re pretty much nowhere to be seen this year and we’re braced for a tough weekend," said Sainz.

"We’ll try to learn as much as possible which might give us some information for the future, but we’re not expecting any miracles going into the weekend."

Some drivers will be dropping down on the order for the start of Sunday's 56-lap grand prix in Texas.

Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto, Alpine Franco Colapinto and rookie Arvid Lindblad over at Racing Bulls have all received grid penalties for various engine changes this weekend.

Brazilian Bortoleto will move 20 places, Argentine Colapinto shifts 10 spots and Briton Lindblad has been handed a five-place grid drop.

Meanwhile, Colapinto's team-mate Pierre Gasly has put some flying laps together and the Frenchman is top of the timesheets with a 1:36.861 on the medium compound.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Getty Images

Ferrari have brought an upgrade package to this weekend's United States Grand Prix but Charles Leclerc didn't want to get fans' hopes up after topping the times in both practice sessions yesterday. "It felt good but it is not the gain I have seen or heard about," said Leclerc, adding Friday was a "small step forward".

Leclerc also shared his thoughts on the state of the track at Cota. Four-time world champion Max Verstappen said on Thursday the bumps were "unacceptable" and "out of control", and the Ferrari driver agrees. "It was very poor. The first sector is particularly poor and very bumpy," he said.