F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Vettel leads Verstappen in FP3, title rivals P4 and P5

Sebastian Vettel set the pace in the final practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg fourth and fifth respectively.

While track conditions will be very different for qualifying - which takes place under floodlights after sunset - Ferrari showed strong pace throughout the session and Vettel topped the times with a 1:40.775. Vettel's time left him 0.137s clear of Max Verstappen, with Kimi Raikkonen third, another 0.1s further back.

Hamilton and Rosberg were fourth and fifth respectively, finishing the session 0.1s apart and within 0.4s of Vettel's time as all drivers set their best laps on the ultrasoft tyre. Hamilton had one minor scare when he reported a potential loss of power which Mercedes analysed and cleared as an unexpected de-rate.

Daniel Ricciardo was sixth quickest, while Red Bull spent some of the session appearing to evaluate whether it could use the supersoft tyre - which would last longer at the start of the race - to get through in Q2 this evening.

A fuel system concern limited Nico Hulkenberg's running somewhat but the German was able to finish the session directly behind team-mate Sergio Perez as Force India appeared to have the edge over Williams, with Valtteri Bottas ninth ahead of Esteban Gutierrez in tenth place.

Felipe Massa ended his final F1 practice session in 14th place - directly behind the British pair of Jolyon Palmer and Jenson Button - having suffered a spin at Turn 6 late in the session when on an out lap. Massa then ran wide at Turn 19 as he had to abort his attempt at a qualifying simulation.

Toro Rosso had limited running during FP2 due to wheel rim concerns which led to punctures on Friday, but carried out more mileage in final practice, with Carlos Sainz - who had a spin at Turn 18 - finishing the session 18th and Daniil Kvyat 21st.

Pascal Wehrlein was competitive for Manor in 17th place, less than 0.1s slower than Kevin Magnussen, suggesting the German could target a spot in Q2 in qualifying. Slowest overall was Marcus Ericsson who felt the wrath of Fernando Alonso having held the McLaren up in the final sector.

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:40.775	16
02	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:40.912	21
03	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:40.999	14
04	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:41.065	15
05	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:41.168	19
06	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:41.831	20
07	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:41.885	19
08	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:42.067	13
09	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:42.076	19
10	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:42.354	16
11	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:42.585	14
12	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:42.616	18
13	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:42.664	15
14	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:42.683	20
15	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:42.805	17
16	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:43.057	17
17	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:43.145	17
18	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:43.301	10
19	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:43.417	22
20	Esteban Ocon	Manor	1:43.733	15
21	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:44.105	13
22	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:44.238	20

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.