Singapore GP: Verstappen pips Vettel, McLaren shines in FP3

Verstappen posted a 1m41.829s on the ultrasoft Pirelli tyres to finish 0.072 seconds clear of Vettel with Lewis Hamilton 0.142s off the pace in third.

But Verstappen was told to return to the pits slowly after reporting that the car was "shifting by itself" while Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo clipped the wall, forcing him to back out of his final attempt a low-fuel run.

McLaren-Honda continued to show strong pace at Marina Bay, with Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne fourth and fifth respectively.

As the sun set at Marina Bay, Vettel was the first driver to post a representative time, the Ferrari driver going quickest with 1m43.237s, but he clipped the wall on the exit of the penultimate corner in the process.

The Red Bulls hung back and didn't head out for their timed laps until midway through the session, with Verstappen going fastest and Ricciardo second, 0.268s adrift of his teammate.

The session was red-flagged after Marcus Ericsson had a low-speed spin, sending his Sauber into the wall backwards just after he had driven under the grandstand towards the end of the lap.

Ericsson recovered to the pits in search of a new rear wing, but the marshals needed just under 10 minutes to sweep away the debris from the accident.

There was a flurry of activity when the session was restarted, with Vettel setting the fastest first and second sectors to go quickest with a 1m41.901s, 0.348s quicker than Verstappen.

The Red Bulls headed out in a bid to respond, with Verstappen reclaiming top spot by just a fraction of a second.

Ricciardo, who topped both Friday practice sessions, had to back out of his effort when he clipped the wall, and he ended up sixth quickest.

Hamilton, who reported that drivers were driving dangerously on team radio as he encountered traffic, improved late on to pop into third, leaving the top three split by just 0.142s.

Nico Hulkenberg was best of the rest in seventh for Renault, with Valtteri Bottas failing to improve on his final run and ending up six tenths adrift of Mercedes teammate Hamilton.

Kimi Raikkonen, who said "not a lot of things made sense" for Ferrari on Friday practice, continued to struggle as he posted the ninth best time, eight tenths behind teammate Vettel.

Force India's Sergio Perez closed out the top 10, a tenth clear of teammate Esteban Ocon. 

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	12	1'41.829
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	13	1'41.901	0.072
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	16	1'41.971	0.142
4	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	11	1'42.383	0.554
5	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Honda	13	1'42.439	0.610
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	11	1'42.517	0.688
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	10	1'42.549	0.720
8	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	16	1'42.592	0.763
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	16	1'42.708	0.879
10	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	14	1'43.010	1.181
11	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	15	1'43.109	1.280
12	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Renault	17	1'43.356	1.527
13	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	11	1'43.368	1.539
14	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Renault	17	1'43.574	1.745
15	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	17	1'43.724	1.895
16	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	16	1'44.041	2.212
17	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	18	1'44.223	2.394
18	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	16	1'44.295	2.466
19	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	Ferrari	15	1'45.760	3.931
20	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	7	1'46.339	4.510