Hamilton heads Vettel amid Red Bull woes

Lewis Hamilton set an impressive pace in final practice for the Australian Grand Prix as Red Bull struggled.

On the soft tyre runs, Hamilton was the only driver to drop below 1m28s as he posted a 1:27.867. Hamilton could have gone even quicker as he set two fastest sectors on his second flying lap before pitting, but he held an advantage of 0.7s over the rest of the field.

Having been quickest in both sessions on Friday, Nico Rosberg struggled somewhat on Saturday as he was a second slower than his team-mate. Rosberg failed to get the most out of his soft tyres, barely improving on his best medium tyre time and ending up third quickest behind Sebastian Vettel. The Mercedes looked a handful on the medium compound, with both drivers running off track.

Ferrari continued to show encouraging pace, with Vettel a quarter of a second faster than Rosberg while team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was also in the top six alongside the two Williams cars.

At the other end of the times, however, Red Bull and McLaren both had frustrating sessions. Daniil Kvyat was only able to complete six laps and was slowest of those who set a time as he had a strange off track moment when he locked his front wheels at extremely low speed and slid straight on at the penultimate corner for an unusual amount of time.

Daniel Ricciardo fared little better, with his car stopping at the pit lane exit and having to be wheeled back as Red Bull failed to improve on Friday's problems, with team principal Christian Horner describing the day as "a shocker".

Ricciardo and Kvyat were separated by the two McLarens, with Kevin Magnussen the faster of the two but still over 3.5s off the overall pace. Force India - which by the team's own admission is a few steps behind with the VJM08 - was quicker than both Red Bull and McLaren in FP3.

Track conditions appeared tricky throughout the session, with a number of drivers running off during the hour. Marcus Ericsson had the most spectacular moment as he lost the rear of his Sauber exiting Turn 11 and slid sideways at high speed but managed to avoid making contact with the walls on either side of the track.

Aside from the two Mercedes', both Lotus drivers had a number of off-track moments as well as Carlos Sainz Jr in the Toro Rosso.

Click here for Saturday's gallery from the Australian Grand Prix

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