Ferrari one-two in final practice as Rosberg crashes

Sebastian Vettel edged his team mate at the top of the time sheets to set a new lap record of 1’07.098.

Mercedes endured a troubled session, as championship leader Nico Rosberg brought out the red flag as his left rear suspension failed, pitching him into the barriers on the exit of turn two, heavily damaging all four corners of his Mercedes.

Earlier in the session, track temperatures were six centigrade higher than on Friday in practice two which caused severe problems for the Mercedes drivers. Nico Rosberg was able to manage his tyres better than his team mate and notched up 14 laps on the ultra-soft tyres before his rear tyres blistered badly. Lewis Hamilton struggled with severe blistering after only eight laps on the ultrasoft tyres. Despite a request from his team to gather more data, he pitted saying; “I’m going to go off if I keep going”.

Ferrari split their strategy early on in the session between their two drivers, with Sebastian Vettel on the ultra-soft tyres, Kimi Raikkonen on the super-soft tyres, in an attempt to learn as much as possible after the rain reduced running in practice two. Raikkonen showed good pace with the less sticky tyres, running around 0.25s behind his team mate. When he put a new set of the ultra-soft tyres on he was able to match his team mates pace.

Red Bull ran strongly behind the Ferraris, Daniel Ricciardo ended up four tenths away from Raikkonen on his ultra-soft tyre run. Max Verstappen stayed away from the kerbs that caught him out on Friday and ended up 0.122s behind his team mate.

Williams improved their pace from Friday and followed very closely behind the Red Bulls, with Valterri Bottas just heading Felipe Massa taking sixth and seventh position respectively. A late spin from Bottas on his qualifying simulation run shows there may be more to come from them.

Force India, headed by Nico Hulkenberg sandwiched the McLarens in eighth and eleventh position. Fernando Alonso ran wide over the infamous yellow kerbs, causing minor damage to the front wing of his car.

Third practice visual gaps

Combined practice times