Ferrari turned up the wick after a subdued Friday, to claim the top spot on the timing screens in the final free practice session of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, setting the stage for an almighty qualifying showdown between the Reds and their Silver Arrows rivals as there was very little to separate their quartet of drivers.
Vettel finally showed glimpses of Ferrari's true pace around Red Bull Ring with the best lap time of 1:04.070 was fastest so far this weekend, make that ever, around the 4.3 km circuit.
A mere three-hundredths of a second shy of the top time was Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes, notably the world championship leader made an error in sector two but recovered impressively to go second quickest.
Next up were the Finns, Valtteri Bottas in third a tenth down on his Mercedes teammate and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in fourth, albeit four tenths off the top time.
Red Bull's home race has not been kind to them over the years and at this stage of the game it seems to be the same story as they lack pace compared to the top two teams. Max Verstappen was fifth fastest, seven tenths off the benchmark time and a tenth up on his teammate Daniel Ricciardo in sixth.
In the final ten minutes, Verstappen lost power on his Red Bull when the engine cut out mid-lap and he was forced to park the car at the side of the circuit. Not ideal ahead of qualifying.
After good showing in both Friday sessions, Haas continued to monopolise best-of-the-rest status, with Romain Grosjean seventh and Kevin Magnussen eighth. They were the last drivers inside a second of Vettel, with Magnussen 0.943s behind the pacesetting German.
Carlos Sainz was ninth for Renault, while 10th place went to Charles Leclerc, who again impressed for Sauber. However, the Monegasque hit trouble late in the session however, stopping on track at Turn 2 just before the chequered flag was shown, with the young star reporting an engine issue.
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