Rosberg fastest as Mercedes dominates

Mercedes continued to dominate at the Malaysian Grand Prix, with Nico Rosberg heading team-mate Lewis Hamilton at the top of the final practice session timesheet. The pair finished a second clear or more ahead of third-placed Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari.

Hamilton had been fastest in the session’s opening phase on the hard compound Pirelli tyres, with a lap of 1:40.552. However, when the field made the switch to the quicker medium tyre, Rosberg jumped ahead, delivering a lap of 1: 39.008s.
Hamilton finished second with a time of 1:39.240.

Raikkonen’s lap of 1:40.156 was good enough for third, with Sebastian Vettel, who did not run until midway through the session, posting a medium tyre lap of 1:40.387. That was three tenths of a second quicker than team-mate Daniel Ricciardo who finished sixth, behind Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.

Seventh-quickest was Fernando Alonso, the Ferrari driver logging a best time of 1:40.736 ahead of former team-mate Felipe Massa who posted a lap of 1:40.781 for Williams. The top 10 was rounded by Valtteri Bottas in the second Williams and Sergio Perez in the second Force India.

After Lotus’ woes of yesterday, both Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado ran throughout the session, with the Frenchman ending the session in 15th place and the Venezuelan slotting into 16th position.

Instead, it was McLaren’s turn to encounter problems. Kevin Magnussen reported a loss of engine power early in the session, with the result that he recorded just five untimed laps during the session. Jenson Button, too, spent most of the session in the garage and finished just four laps during the hour-long session