Lewis Hamilton overcame two stoppages to record the quickest time of the Brazilian weekend so far, narrowly beating team-mate Nico Rosberg by just over a tenth.
The Briton came to a halt at Bico de Pato early in the session with a gearbox issue, meaning he was unable to select a gear. He did however manage to get going again and returned to the pits.
Later in the session he span off, briefly stopping before recovering his car to the pits. However that didn’t stop him from going back out and topping the timing screens.
Rosberg was second ahead of the two Ferraris, which were between six tenths and second adrift with Sebastian Vettel leading Kimi Raikkonen.
Valtteri Bottas seemed to master the track to secure fifth, whilst Williams team-mate Felipe Massa could only manage 12th – the only Mercedes powered car outside the top ten.
2015 Brazilian Grand Prix Practice Times (FP3):
| # | Driver | Team | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
| 01 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:12.070 | 16 | |
| 02 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:12.193 | 0.123 | 19 |
| 03 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:12.760 | 0.690 | 19 |
| 04 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:13.096 | 1.026 | 20 |
| 05 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:13.335 | 1.265 | 25 |
| 06 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:13.345 | 1.275 | 19 |
| 07 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:13.437 | 1.367 | 19 |
| 08 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:13.506 | 1.436 | 18 |
| 09 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:13.534 | 1.464 | 20 |
| 10 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:13.548 | 1.478 | 21 |
| 11 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:13.572 | 1.502 | 23 |
| 12 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:13.742 | 1.672 | 24 |
| 13 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 1:13.829 | 1.759 | 17 |
| 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:13.850 | 1.780 | 19 |
| 15 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 1:13.959 | 1.889 | 23 |
| 16 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:14.185 | 2.115 | 23 |
| 17 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:14.288 | 2.218 | 22 |
| 18 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:14.445 | 2.375 | 17 |
| 19 | Will Stevens | Manor | 1:16.671 | 4.601 | 15 |
| 20 | Alexander Rossi | Manor | 1:17.059 | 4.989 | 15 |
