Sebastian Vettel showed Ferrari’s hand in the final practice session of the season at the Yas Marina Circuit by topping the timesheets ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.
Vettel has won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on two occasions and continued to show a strong turn of pace under the lights. The German ended the session over a tenth clear of Verstappen in second.
Raikkonen backed up Ferrari’s competitiveness, setting a fast time at the end of the session. The 2012 Abu Dhabi GP winner was third fastest, two-tenths of his teammate’s benchmark.
Hamilton once again was ahead of title rival Rosberg with just a tenth of a second separating the two Mercedes drivers.
Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull was a second off in sixth respectively. Next up were the two Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg. Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Gutierrez rounded out the top 10 spots.
With conditions not being representative of qualifying and Sunday’s race, we can expect Mercedes to have improved competitiveness when it matters later today.
The two McLarens were just outside the top 10 with Fernando Alonso leading Jenson Button in 11th and 13th respectively.
In his final ever F1 practice session, Felipe Massa was 14th fastest ahead of Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen and Pascal Wehrlein.
After suffering several issues with punctures on Friday, Toro Rosso could only complete 23 laps between both cars.
Carlos Sainz was 18th fastest ahead of Felipe Nasr, Esteban Ocon, Daniil Kvyat and Marcus Ericsson.
