Vettel quickest as Rosberg crashes in final practice

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Sebastian Vettel topped final practice for the Austrian Grand Prix as Nico Rosberg crashed due to a suspension failure.

Rosberg was on a qualifying simulation run when his left rear suspension failed as he accelerated out of Turn 2, with the car being pitched left and hitting the barrier head on. Rosberg was unhurt in the incident - which brought out the red flag - and the damage to the car was largely confined to the left rear corner and the nose.

Vettel was already quickest at the time of Rosberg's accident, with his time of 1:07.098 being the fastest of the weekend so far. Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen ensured it was a Ferrari one-two as he posted a 1:07.234, with both drivers using the ultrasoft tyre. While Vettel's pace is encouraging, the German will take a five-place grid penalty after qualifying for a gearbox change.

Lewis Hamilton was third quickest after admitting on Friday that he is not quick enough around the Red Bull Ring, with the defending champion 0.210s slower than Vettel on his late lap. Hamilton had earlier complained of problems with his rear tyres as Mercedes saw blistering on the ultrasoft compound during its high fuel runs.

The majority of drivers set their best times on new ultrasoft tyres, but Hamilton can attribute some of the deficit to Ferrari to the fact he was on used ultrasofts having had to abort his first run when Rosberg crashed.

Daniel Ricciardo was fourth quickest for Red Bull, half a second off Vettel's time just ahead of team-mate Max Verstappen as 0.122s separated the pair. The Two Williams drivers of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were sixth and seventh respectively - 0.7s off the pace - with Bottas suffering a spin at the final corner when set to improve late on.

Nico Hulkenberg was over 1.1s off the pace in eighth but set his best time on supersofts, with Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso rounding out the top ten.

Pascal Wehrlein was an encouraging 13th quickest for Manor as he suggested he could fight for a place in Q2 this afternoon. Wehrlein split the two Haas drivers, with both having set their times on supersofts. The two Toro Rossos struggled in FP3, with Daniil Kvyat 16th and Carlos Sainz 18th.

Mercedes is investigating the reason for Rosberg's failure but should be able to repair the car in time for qualifying. The team will also analyse whether the gearbox was damaged in the incident, as a replacement would result in a five-place grid penalty.

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:07.098	20
02	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:07.234	26
03	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:07.308	20
04	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:07.639	22
05	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:07.761	22
06	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:07.814	23
07	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:07.831	27
08	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:08.285	23
09	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:08.304	19
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:08.327	17
11	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:08.442	26
12	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:08.475	22
13	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:08.534	29
14	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:08.550	21
15	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:08.569	31
16	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:08.786	32
17	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:08.939	27
18	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:09.008	11
19	Rio Haryanto	Manor	1:09.116	28
20	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:09.137	25
21	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:09.557	20
22	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:10.959	16

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.