Hamilton on top with Antonelli fourth in final practice at US Grand Prix

AUSTIN, United States (AFP) —Lewis Hamilton topped the times for Ferrari ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen with Mercedes' championship leader Kimi Antonelli fourth in Saturday's third and final free practice ahead of the United States Grand Prix. The 41-year-old seven-time champion clocked a best time of one minute and 34.893 seconds to outpace his old rival, four-time champion Verstappen, by 0.168sec at the Circuit of the Americas. Hamilton's Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc was third after having several laps deleted -- like many of the drivers -- for exceeding track limits, finishing ahead of Antonelli and his Mercedes team-mate and nearest title rival George Russell. Antonelli leads Russell by 102 points in the championship and can become Formula One's youngest champion, at 20, and Italy's first since Alberto Ascari of Ferrari in 1953, if he wins Sunday's race and his rivals fail to stay within reach of his points total. Russell needs to finish in the top eight and Hamilton in the top four to keep their respective title hopes alive if Antonelli wins. Hamilton's fastest lap ensured Ferrari had topped the times in all three practice sessions after Leclerc topped both on Friday. Leclerc was fast again in this session but had five laps deleted due to exceeding track limits as a total of 42 laps were ruled out overall.