Prac Three: Hamilton stays ahead in final prac

Lewis Hamilton heads into qualifying for the Bahrain GP as the one to beat having topped all three practice sessions at the Sakhir circuit.

The Mercedes driver added yet another P1 to his tally in Saturday’s third and final practice while Nico Rosberg made it a 1-2.

The duo went unchallenged on both the medium and soft tyres with Hamilton finishing up with a 1:35.324. That put the Brit 0.115s ahead of Rosberg.

Third place went to Sergio Perez who pulled a blistering lap out as he crossed the line with a 1:35.868, just 0.544s down.

It was a great session for Williams as, despite minimal running, Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were fourth and fifth with the Finn within a second of the P1 time.

Jenson Button was sixth for McLaren ahead of Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg in a session that saw several drivers caught out by a tailwind at Turn 11.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel did not see the chequered flag as his session ended with 20 minutes still on the clock when he lost the rear end of his RB10.

The German lost it at Turn 2 and spun off backwards. His Renault engine immediately cut out and it was game over for Vettel. “I spun, exit of T2, and engine was off immediately,” he told the team.

Times
01 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:35.324 12 laps
02 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:35.439 +0.115 12 laps
03 Sergio Perez Force India 1:35.868 +0.544 10 laps
04 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:36.116 +0.792 10 laps
05 Felipe Massa Williams 1:36.364 +1.040 8 laps
06 Jenson Button McLaren 1:36.394 +1.070 8 laps
7 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:36.454 +1.130 12 laps
08 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:36.455 +1.131 11 laps
09 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:36.680 +1.356 16 laps
10 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:36.772 +1.448 13 laps
11 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:36.822 +1.498 8 laps
12 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:37.030 +1.706 11 laps
13 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:37.119 +1.795 11 laps
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:37.325 +2.001 18 laps
15 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:38.089 +2.765 24 laps
16 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:38.400 +3.076 17 laps
17 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:38.736 +3.412 15 laps
18 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:38.880 +3.556 21 laps
19 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:38.971 +3.647 18 laps
20 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:39.208 +3.884 17 laps
21 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:39.225 +3.901 8 laps
22 Max Chilton Marussia 1:39.597 +4.273 14 laps