Singapore, FP3: Rosberg edges Verstappen by 0.059s in final practice

Mercedes Nico Rosberg claimed top spot in final practice for the Singapore Grand Prix, beating Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen by just five hundredths of a second.

After spending the bulk of the session in P1 with a lap set on supersoft tyres Rosberg was the first to make the switch to the quicker ultrasoft tyres, with 18 minutes left on the clock.

He quickly lowered his own benchmark by over a second from 1:45.544 to 1:44.352, a gain more than tallying with Pirelli’s Friday assessment of there being 0.9s between the two compounds.

Rosberg was pushed hard by Verstappen, however, with the Dutch teenager finding clear air on a busy track to post a time of 1:44.411, just 0.059s adrift of the Mercedes driver.

Given the pace of Rosberg and Verstappen the pair should haven been joined at the top of the timesheet by their respective team-mates, but both Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo had untidy ends to the session.

Hamilton was close behind his team-mate on track but despite setting the fastest Sector 1 time the championship leader suffered a huge lock-up on the approach to Turn 7. The resulting flat spot forced him back to the pit lane and though he emerged again on a used set of ultrasofts he made no attempt to set a time and thus finished the session in P8.

Ricciardo, meanwhile, caught traffic on his quali sim and ended the session in P4, 0.551s behind Rosberg. “Starting to enjoy Ocon’s company,” the Australian drily remarked of his final sector encounter with Manor’s French driver.

It meant that P3 in the session went to Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn was 0.508s adrift of Rosberg, however, and with team-mate Sebastian Vettel fifth-fastest and complaining of poor rear handling, it looks like the Italian squad has work to do ahead of qualifying if it is to challenge for the front two rows of the grid.

Sixth place went to Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, with Daniil Kvyat impressing for Toro Rosso in seventh place ahead of Hamilton. Carlos Sainz have Toro Rosso further hope of a good result with ninth place and the top 10 order was rounded out by Williams’ Valtteri Bottas.