Mercedes continued to be the tall benchmark heading into qualifying as Lewis Hamilton comfortably headed Nico Rosberg at the top of the timesheets.
The championship leader laid down a marker by setting a 1:37.107 on the soft tyres and enjoying an advantage of almost nine tenths over team-mate Rosberg, who didn’t have the most trouble-free session as he complained of issues with his brakes throughout the hour.
Cooler track conditions in the morning meant the final practice session had a low-key start, with the Mercedes drivers not seeing the need to venture out for a flying lap until tw0-thirds into the session.
The duo were the first drivers to dip under the 98 second mark this weekend, with their closest rivals in the Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa being over a second down in 3rd and 4th respectively.
Fernando Alonso placed his Ferrari in an encouraging fifth, followed by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who lead the session when drivers ran on the mediums earlier in the session, Nico Hulkenberg and a surprise appearance in the top 10 was Adrian Sutil in his Sauber as he finished eighth. He was ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button, who rounded out the top ten.
Sebastian Vettel languished down the bottom of the times without running on the softs as him and Red Bull opted to focus on long-runs for the whole of the session given the demise of having to serve his grid penalty after qualifying.
