Max Verstappen blasts to the top of the times in US GP's final practice session

Max Verstappen laid down the gauntlet in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for Sunday's United States Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver set a 1:35.825 in the dying minutes of the session, edging out Ferrari's Charles Leclerc by 0.320 seconds.

Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz, was third quickest, followed by Red Bull's Sergio Perez.

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-AMG) and Fernando Alonso (Alpine) rounded out the top six. Elsewhere, George Russell (Mercedes-AMG), Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) completed the top ten.

Drivers toggled between the Soft and Medium tyres and with different fuel loads, but everyone soon switched to the Softs when the session got to its business end. Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu was the slowest of the 20 drivers, almost four seconds off Verstappen's pace.

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FP3 CLASSIFICATION ??Max Verstappen tops FP3 at COTA! ??#USGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/f7ncwINcol

Penalties for Leclerc, Alonso

It is believed that some drivers are set for the grid penalties for taking new power unit parts, exceeding the allocated number given by the FIA. Leclerc and Alonso are set for grid penalties as both will be fitting new V6 engines to their cars.

With both already having taken new engines earlier this year, they will only get five-place grid drops and not ten. However, Leclerc is also confirmed to take a new turbocharger, gifting him another drop of five positions. As such, Leclerc will start ten positions lower from where he qualifies.

Ferrari could be mulling the idea of fitting an entirely new power unit to Leclerc's car and having him start at the back of the grid. The Circuit of The