Rosberg pips Hamilton in final Sepang practice

The German's best of 1:39:690, the quickest of the weekend so far and set with the medium tyres, put him 0.183 seconds ahead of Friday pace-setter Lewis Hamilton.

Mercedes' drivers were not too far ahead this time, however, as Ferrari once again showed promising pace in the scorching heat of the Malaysian track.

Kimi Raikkonen was third quickest, 0.555 seconds behind Rosberg, with teammate Sebastian Vettel right behind in fourth.

Raikkonen had a puncture early in the session and spent a lot of time in the pits, not setting a competitive time until the end of the running while his team worked on the suspension of his car.

Despite that, the Ferraris seemed to have the edge over its main rival Williams, with Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas in fifth and sixth some two tenths behind the Finn.

Daniel Ricciardo finished seventh for Red Bull, albeit nearly a second off the pace, with Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz in eighth ahead of teammate Max Verstappen and the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson, who completed the top ten.

McLaren did not have an easy start to Saturday, with the team spending some time working on the cars of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.

The team had to replace the ICE, the turbo and the MGU-H unit of Button's power unit after yesterday's practice.

Alonso finished down in 15th position, with Button down in 18th nearly half a second behind the Spaniard.

The Manor team completed more running as it attempts to secure a place on the grid for tomorrow's race.

Will Stevens managed just six laps on his way to the slowest time of the day, over seven seconds off the pace.

Teammate Roberto Merhi finished 19th after another spin at Turn 9 from which he was lucky to recover.