0.059s between Rosberg and Verstappen as Hamilton struggles

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Nico Rosberg edged out Max Verstappen by just 0.059s in final practice for the Singapore Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton struggled.

With Verstappen saying on Friday he was confident he could close a 0.4s deficit to Rosberg, the 18-year-old duly did so as Red Bull displayed its ability to challenge Mercedes in Singapore in FP3. Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest for Ferrari - half a second off the pace - but Daniel Ricciardo in fourth place hit traffic in the final sector on his best lap.

AS IT HAPPENED: Singapore Grand Prix - FP3

Sebastian Vettel finished the session three quarters of a second adrift in fifth place, with the German complaining about rear braking stability on corner entry as he again ended up slower than team-mate Raikkonen.

Vettel ended FP3 ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniil Kvyat as Toro Rosso continued its strong form at the Marina Bay Circuit. Hamilton was eighth as he struggled to put a clean lap together and didn't set a representative time, with his best lap coming on the supersoft tyre compared to ultrasofts for the rest of the field.

The session was red flagged after 15 minutes when Pascal Wehrlein spun at Turn 11, damaging his rear wing against the barrier and leaving debris on the circuit. While cars were returning to the pits, a giant lizard then appeared at Turn 3, waiting for Verstappen to pass in his Red Bull before continuing across the track and through the barrier.

On the restart, Felipe Nasr immediately locked up at Turn 13 with Esteban Gutierrez in close attendance and had to spin his car round to continue, followed by Hamilton going straight on at Turn 7.

Hamilton went off again the same corner on his ultrasoft tyre run and heavily locked his front left tyre, causing him to abort his lap. The championship leader was also complaining of high temperatures on the right hand side of his cockpit, and goes into qualifying on the back foot having completed just 10 laps in FP2 on Friday due to a hydraulic problem.

Carlos Sainz and Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top ten, with Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso close behind at the end of the session, suggesting there will be a close fight between Williams and McLaren to challenge for a place in Q3 in qualifying.

FP3 RESULTS

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:44.352	15
02	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:44.411	15
03	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:44.860	15
04	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:44.903	12
05	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:45.104	13
06	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:45.316	13
07	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:45.503	19
08	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:45.806	9
09	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:45.879	17
10	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:45.947	16
11	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:46.112	15
12	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:46.164	13
13	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:46.316	16
14	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:46.529	17
15	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:47.116	11
16	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:47.277	16
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:47.293	18
18	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:47.411	20
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:47.956	20
20	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:48.689	13
21	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:49.201	10
22	Esteban Ocon	Manor	1:49.565	14

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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.