Sebastian Vettel was comfortably quickest during the final practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix, with over 0.7 seconds separating him from the nearest Mercedes.

Vettel stayed on top for the majority of the session with his 1m33.018s lap with cold temperatures and wind gusts being an issue during the session.

His closest rival in the standings was his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who was 0.46s slower. Bottas was the closest driver from another team, but even further off Vettel.

2017 Formula 1 drivers’ champion Lewis Hamilton was caught out halfway through the one-hour session, spinning at Turn 10 and flat-spotting his tyres after going wide and onto wet astroturf.

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While the Mercedes driver was able to keep going, Ricciardo – who finished 15th in the session – had an engine failure, giving the Red Bull mechanics extra work to get him out in time for qualifying.

His Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen didn’t run into any major issues, moving up to fourth overall ahead of Hamilton in the final 10 minutes.

Behind them was Haas’ Kevin Magnussen in sixth, with both Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon for Force India in the top 10 in seventh and eighth respectively.

The top 10 was rounded off by Renault’s Carlos Sainz Jr in ninth and Sergey Sirotkin for Williams in 10th.

Neither McLaren driver was inside the top half of the standings on time at the end of the session. Magnussen’s Haas team-mate Romain Grosjean was 20th and last.