Nico Rosberg topped the times at the end of final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix as the top three drivers were covered by 0.147s.
Having topped the times in FP2, Rosberg remained fastest despite being unable to improve his time with a late lap on soft tyres. Rosberg posted a 1:23.078 in the first half of the session and was then hit with a sensor problem when heading out for a final run on soft tyres which prevented another qualifying simulation.
The problem was quickly rectified and Rosberg returned to the track, but his initial time was enough to stay fastest as team-mate Lewis Hamilton was 0.126s further back with his attempt. Sebastian Vettel’s final lap saw him go third, 0.021s off Hamilton’s time. The German had been fastest overall in the first two sectors but lost half a second to Rosberg in the final part of the lap.
Only Vettel set a representative time for Ferrari, with Kimi Raikkonen a second off the pace despite posting the fastest first sector when starting his attempt. Raikkonen then hit traffic in the final sector as he followed a Manor through the fast final corner.
Max Verstappen impressed with the fourth quickest time, 0.6s adrift of Rosberg’s time and 0.1s ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. While the two team-mates appear closely matched, Red Bull also holds a clear advantage over Williams – with Valtteri Bottas seventh – heading in to qualifying.
Sergio Perez, Daniil Kvyat and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top ten, with Kvyat 0.2s faster than team-mate Carlos Sainz in the final practice session.
There was a slightly unnecessary incident late in the session between Romain Grosjean and one of his former team’s drivers in the shape of Kevin Magnussen. Grosjean was attempting to pass the Renault around the outside at Turn 5 but Magnussen wanted to retain track position and sped up before running that Haas out of road on the exit of the corner.
AS IT HAPPENED: Spanish Grand Prix – FP3
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