Sebastian Vettel topped the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix while title rival Lewis Hamilton ran into brake issues towards the end of the session.
Hamilton suffered a front-right brake failure on the run to Turn 3 with just ten minutes of the session to go, which halted any further running, and the Briton ended up second fastest, nearly three tenths behind Vettel’s Ferrari.
The other Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas did not return to the track after Hamilton’s failure as a precaution but still wound up third ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
Red Bull will be concerned as its drivers struggled to match their rivals at its home track, with Max Verstappen edging out Daniel Ricciardo for fifth but still finishing seven tenths off the pace.
Haas F1 will be very happy with its Saturday morning efforts after getting both cars into the top ten, with Kevin Magnussen leading Romain Grosjean as the team targets a place in Q3.
Carlos Sainz stopped on track in the opening minutes with a power unit problem but did return to the track for the final 30 minutes after some speedy work from his mechanics. The Spaniard was 11th quickest, just five thousandths behind team-mate Daniil Kvyat.
Both Force India and Williams struggled, with neither team able to make the top ten despite the advantage of their Mercedes power unit.
Fernando Alonso has had to revert to a previous spec engine for the rest of the weekend after problems were discovered following Friday’s running. The two-time world champion and team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne ran at a similar pace to the Renault’s of Nico Hulkenberg and Jolyon Palmer as they beat Williams at the end of the session.
