Bahrain FP3: Vettel on top as Ferrari emerge

Ferrari were keeping their powder dry on day one of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, but in the late stages of the final free practice session they unleashed Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen and the duo ended the session first and second.

Vettel's best time of 1:31.683 came with a few minutes left in the one hour session with a set of red band Pirelli supersofts, knocking teammate Raikkonen off the top of the timing screens. The Maranello outfit had clearly turned up the wick for the occasion

Next up were the Mercedes pair, who had dominated Friday's practices, with Nico Rosberg 0.381 of a second off the top time finishing third fastest and Lewis Hamilton a few hundredths down on his teammate.

It was an intriguing session, which started to fall into place with just over 10 minutes left on the clock, the Mercedes drivers took to the track on the supersoft tyre for their qualifying runs.

Rosberg immediately jumped to P1 with a lap of 1:32.104, with Hamilton quickly slotting into P2 with a lap just five hundredths of a second adrift of the Australian Grand Prix winner.

It looked like a repeat of a familiar pattern but just two minutes later Raikkonen shattered that notion as his supersoft run yielded a P1 time of 1:31.723, almost four tenths clear of Rosberg’s benchmark.

But there was more to come from Ferrari, too, as Vettel then set off on his run. With session-best times in sectors one and three, the four-time champion just edged his team-mate to top spot, finishing just four hundredths of a second clear of Raikkonen.

Vettel’s lap time of 1:31.683 was good enough to put him 0.421 clear of Rosberg. The result will give Ferrari hope of running Mercedes close in qualifying, though Vettel’s time in final practice was still 0.6s off the P1 pace set by Rosberg in FP2.

FP3 was also run in considerably higher temperatures than yesterday’s sessions, a trait that suited Ferrari last year. Qualifying, though, will be run in considerably cooler temperatures in the evening, which could swing the pendulum back in favour of the Silver Arrows.

Behind the Ferraris and Mercedes, fifth place went to Williams Valtteri Bottas, while Romain Grosjean gave new squad Haas hope of a good qualifying with a surprise sixth place.

The Frenchman, who handed the team points on its debut in Australia a fortnight ago, set a time of 1:33.082 to eclipse Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat, Haas team-mate Esteban Gutierrez, the second Williams of Felipe Massa and the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, who set his best time on the supersoft tyre in the first half of the session.

Elsewhere, both Toro Rosso and Force India chose not to set times on supersoft tyres, a choice matched by Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein.

McLaren stand-in Stoffel Vandoorne had a troubled session. The Belgian’s car suffered and oil leak and he was garage-bound for much of the session. He recovered late on to set the 14th fastest time, just 0.04s adrift of team-mate Jenson Button.

Renault’s Jolyon Palmer, too, encountered difficulties. He ended the session with a rear puncture, which left him limping back to the pits in P20 ahead of the Manor cars.