Sebastian Vettel led a Ferrari one-two in FP3 at the United States Grand Prix, with Kimi Raikkonen second fastest with Lewis Hamilton chasing, less than a tenth of a second separating the trio at the top of the timing screens.
After a Friday almost nullified by the wet conditions that prevailed at Circuit of the Americas, Saturday was dry at last although the skies remained grey with water looming overhead, however it stayed dry.
Vettel's best lap time of 1:33.797 was five-hundredths of a second up on teammate Raikkonen and seven-hundredths of a second quicker than title rival Lewis Hamilton who put the Mercedes in third.
Valtteri Bottas was fourth in the other Silver Arrow, albeit eight tenths down on the top time, and six tenths down on his teammate on the #44 car.
From the outside, it was clear that Ferrari were keen to flex their muscles in the one-hour session, while Mercedes appeared content to work on race pace runs thus setting the stage for what should be an enthralling pole shootout in qualifying later in the day.
Around a second down on the benchmark time, in fifth, was Max Verstappen in the Red Bull a couple of tenths up on Daniel Ricciardo in the sister car in sixth.
Charles Leclerc was Best of the Rest in the Sauber, the rookie 1.5 seconds down on his 2019 Ferrari teammate at the top of the timesheets.
Sergio Perez (Force India) was eighth fastest, ahead of Carlos Sainz (Renault) in ninth and Romain Grosjean (Haas) rounding out the top ten.
Its very close in the midfield, although in seventh Leclerc was a chunky 1.5 seconds off the top time, while less than a second separated the Leclerc with Fernando Alonso down in 20th.
It was yet another dismal session for McLaren with Alonso slowest of all and Stoffel Vandoorne 18th in the other orange car.
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