Practice report
Formula 1 Bahrain GP
Hamilton leads from Vettel in final Bahrain practice
World champion Lewis Hamilton beat Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel to the quickest time in final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Pablo Elizalde
Edited: Apr 18, 2015, 1:16 PM
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The British driver led the way for the first time in a session this weekend, finishing with a best time of 1:34.599.
But the threat from Ferrari looked more real than ever, with Vettel less than a tenth of a second behind the Mercedes ahead of the grid-deciding session in two hours.
Nico Rosberg had to settle for third position in the second Mercedes, the German - yesterday's pace-setter - nearly four tenths off the pace.
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth for Ferrari, the Finn chased by the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.
Pastor Maldonado finished in seventh in the Lotus, ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and the Sauber of Felipe Nasr, who completed the top 10.
Several drivers took their time to jump onto the track as the wind made the conditions very tricky, with the circuit covered in sand despite the GP2 race taking place earlier.
McLaren's Jenson Button had no choice but to be one of the first men to run following the problems that affected him yesterday. The Briton set the early pace but was quickly outpaced by the Sauber of Nasr as the action was scarce on track.
Fifteen minutes in, only six drivers had posted a time, and Hamilton and Rosberg had not even gone out before that.
Rosberg needed just one lap to put Mercedes back on top of the times, but was outpaced first by Vettel and then by Raikkonen before the halfway point of the session, the Finn posting the first 1:36s lap of the session.
The session was red-flagged 30 minutes in when Daniil Kvyat lost control of his Red Bull at the exit of Turn 4.
The Russian lost the rear of his car under acceleration and spun. Although the spin seemed harmless, Kvyat left his car run backwards for too long and ended up rolling into the gravel.
The soft-tyre runs kicked off with some 10 minutes to go, and Force India's Hulkenberg led the way briefly before Rosberg retook P1 with a 1:34.968, over 1.5 seconds off his closest rival.
Hamilton leapt to the top with seven minutes left, while Vettel moved to second in the Ferrari just moments later.
FP3 results Pos DriverTeamTimeGapLaps 01 
L. Hamilton 
Mercedes 1:34.599 13 02 
S. Vettel 
Ferrari 1:34.668 +0.069 14 03 N. Rosberg Mercedes 1:34.968 +0.369 16 04 
K. Raikkönen Ferrari 1:35.141 +0.542 13 05 V. Bottas 
Williams 1:35.393 +0.794 18 06 
F. Massa Williams 1:35.471 +0.872 15 07 
P. Maldonado 
Lotus 1:36.307 +1.708 14 08 
D. Ricciardo 
Red Bull 1:36.335 +1.736 8 09 N. Hulkenberg 
Force India 1:36.421 +1.822 13 10 F. Nasr 
Sauber 1:36.429 +1.830 18 11 J. Button 
McLaren 1:36.488 +1.889 14 12 
D. Kvyat Red Bull 1:36.548 +1.949 7 13 
M. Ericsson Sauber 1:36.612 +2.013 17 14 
M. Verstappen 
Toro Rosso 1:36.684 +2.085 11 15 
S. Perez Force India 1:36.727 +2.128 14 16 
F. Alonso McLaren 1:36.899 +2.300 11 17 C. Sainz Toro Rosso 1:36.979 +2.380 14 18 
R. Grosjean Lotus 1:37.151 +2.552 17 19 W. Stevens 
Manor 1:39.745 +5.146 12 20 R. Merhi Manor 1:40.541 +5.942 14
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