YAS MARINA, Abu Dhabi -- Sebastian Vettel claimed top spot in final practice ahead of Red Bull and the Mercedes title contenders, in a session which saw the top five covered by 0.4s.
Vettel was happy with the performance of his car on Friday and carried that into the final 60 minutes of track time before qualifying, setting a 1:40.775 to lead the session. Red Bull's Max Verstappen finished second to split Vettel and Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen, while title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were marginally behind in fourth and fifth, though neither emerged for a final run at the end of the session when most cars gained time.
As with FP1, FP3 can be a misleading session as it is held in conditions not representative of qualifying or the race as they take place in the heat of the early afternoon. The times hint at a closer qualifying session, though Mercedes will take comfort from the strong position they had at the end of FP2 on Friday evening.
Hamilton and Rosberg, the two men going for the title this weekend, were split by just under 0.1s in what proves to be a tight battle in the most important qualifying session of the season so far. The session was not plain sailing for the world champions, with Hamilton raising fears of another engine problem early on when complaining of a loss of power and crawling back to the garage. However, Mercedes later confirmed the issue had just been a "de-rate" of the engine.
Behind the top five, Daniel Ricciardo finished a distant sixth for Red Bull, 0.7s shy of Rosberg in fifth. Force India drivers Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg set near-identical times in their final FP3 as teammates, ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Gutierrez.
As with FP2, Fernando Alonso had to settle for 11th just outside of the points, though the Spaniard has admitted he will not be upset to miss Q3 this evening as McLaren focuses on points and 2017. Jolyon Palmer split Alonso and Jenson Button in the other McLaren, while Felipe Massa's final FP3 session finished in 14th position. Romain Grosjean finished 15th for Haas ahead of Kevin Magnussen and an impressive Pascal Wehrlein.
Carlos Sainz was 18th for Toro Rosso as the team looked to make up for lost time from its back-to-back punctures on Friday, though he had a spin at Turn 18 just before the half-hour mark and accumulated just 10 laps. Felipe Nasr and Esteban Ocon took the places between Sainz and the other Toro Rosso, Daniil Kvyat, in 21st. Marcus Ericsson rounded off the order in 22nd, 3.4s down on Vettel's benchmark time.