There was a bit of late drama at the end of that session when Isack Hadjar suffers a lock-up and forces Alex Albon off the track at Cota. Hadjar is fuming on the team radio, but Albon feels the Frenchman was at fault.

Isack Hadjar: "Yeah now you have to check the floor. Anyways, I don't know where is my car. I don't know what's happening."

Isack Hadjar is just in the top 10 in third practice but the Frenchman is continuing his feedback on the difficulties with his car.

Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen is pushing for a quicker lap time on his soft tyre, but the Dutchman has a big snap of oversteer on the exit of Turn 14 before twitching again at Turn 15.

Lewis Hamilton: "Bortoleto was just on the racing line in the braking zone."

Lewis Hamilton is on the radio to Ferrari to flag Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto on the racing line. The seven-time world champion was behind the Brazilian, who was slow-moving in the braking zone.

Hamilton still leads the session with a 1:34.893, but team-mate Charles Leclerc did have his quicker lap time deleted for track limits.

Rosanna Tennant
5 Live F1 reporter in Austin

Bit of work going on Max Verstappen's car down at Red Bull, a few mechanics just putting some finishing touches to the car. It looks like they're getting ready to send him back out, he's still in the car so it's nothing serious.

1. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) - 1:34.893

2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.168

3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.234

4. George Russell (Mercedes) +0.488

5. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.560

Max Verstappen is 0.168 seconds off the pace of Lewis Hamilton, but Charles Leclerc has put in a strong final sector to lead the timesheets with about 12 minutes to go.

But the replays show the Ferrari running wide off the track at Turn Nine, so that time in the 1:34s for Leclerc is deleted from the board, and he drops back down to third behind Verstappen and Hamilton.

Kimi Antonelli: "I got track limits..."

Engineer: "You we were doing so well."

He was on the limit, Kimi Antonelli, and now that top marker of 1:35.015 is wiped from the timesheets. He was over the line at Turn Nine and tells his engineer Pete Bonnington straight away.

Over at Red Bull, Max Verstappen is on the soft tyre and goes quickest, but Lewis Hamilton is flying in his Ferrari, banking a 1:34.893 to leapfrog the Dutchman on the same compound.

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