Sebastian Vettel ends the final practice session quickest of all ahead of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.
Vettel made sure Mercedes were not going to have it all their way around the streets of Monte Carlo as he set a benchmark time of 1:16.143 on the Super-Softs during the qualifying simulations. His compatriot Nico Rosberg was the leading Mercedes in second, over two tenths off the Ferrari’s fastest time. Thursday’s and early third practice pace-setter Lewis Hamilton finished third, a further three tenths but failed to get a clean final run on the Super-Softs in the end.
Dry, overcast weather complimenting the dry track ensured the teams were able to maximise track running for the first time this weekend. Although the session wasn’t without disruption as the Kimi Raikkonen in the other Ferrari hit the wall of Saint Devote as he lost control of the rear, bringing out the red flags.
Despite the incident Raikkonen ended the session sixth behind the leading Red Bull Daniel Ricciardo in fourth and Carlos Sainz Jr, who continued Toro Rosso’s promising form this weekend, in fifth. The two Renault-powered cars roughly a second adrift off the top.
McLaren was another team showing more promise than normal as Button took his McLaren up to eighth, while his team-mate Fernando Alonso was down in fourteenth but occupied a top ten spot for a good part of the session. Behind Button was the other Toro Rosso driver Max Verstappen and Romain Grosjean in his Lotus in ninth and tenth respectively.
Image courtesy of Scuderia Ferrari
