Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Rosberg top from Vettel in close FP3

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel split the two Mercedes' in qualifying trim.

Having admitted he needed to work on his one-lap pace following second practice, Rosberg set the pace with a 1:26.021 on medium tyres in the final session. He followed Vettel over the line on their qualifying-spec runs, with Vettel's time leaving him just 0.156s adrift of the Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton was third quickest after a scruffy lap saw him lock up in the final chicane and end up 0.201s adrift of his team-mate. Hamilton's session was a messy one, as he made a mistake at Turn 3 and ran slightly wide on to the run-off area, pitching him in to a high-speed spin. The defending world champion did well to control the car after losing the rear end and kept it out of the wall, with just four heavily flat-spotted tyres to show for the incident.

Valtteri Bottas was fourth as Williams again showed a big step forward on Saturday morning, beating his fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen who was fifth in the second Ferrari. Bottas was 0.6s off the pace but Raikkonen's lap of 1:26.944 was 0.8s slower than his team-mate, hinting he has more to come.

Daniel Ricciardo recovered from a difficult day on Friday to set the sixth fastest time on Saturday morning, a second adrift of Rosberg. Red Bull appears to have made a step forward with its updated RB11 this weekend and may be able to challenge the Williams cars in qualifying.

Behind Ricciardo were Felipe Massa and Max Verstappen as Toro Rosso's strong weekend continued, with Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz completing the top ten.

Jenson Button was 11th for McLaren, with the MP4-30 appearing more competitive in Spain but a spot in Q3 looking a tall order as he was half a second away from Sainz. Team-mate Fernando Alonso was only 14th fastest after a mistake at the final chicane on his medium-tyre lap, with Nico Hulkenberg and Felipe Nasr splitting the two McLarens.

Click here for Friday's gallery from the Spanish Grand Prix

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:26.021	19
02	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:26.177	14
03	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:26.222	10
04	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:26.682	19
05	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:26.944	14
06	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:27.048	19
07	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:27.109	19
08	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:27.132	18
09	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1:27.313	7
10	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:27.809	17
11	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:27.938	17
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:28.082	13
13	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:28.096	23
14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:28.304	17
15	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:28.578	17
16	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:28.618	18
17	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:28.788	20
18	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:28.996	14
19	Will Stevens	Manor	1:31.125	16
20	Roberto Merhi	Manor	1:31.749	17

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.