» Vettel blitzes final practice as Mercedes falter

Sebastian Vettel has topped the final practice session at the Singapore Grand Prix and put himself in prime position for qualifying, clearing the rest of the field by almost half a second.

The next-quickest runner was fellow Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen who narrowly finished ahead of Friday pace-setter Daniil Kvyat.

The dominance of Vettel and Ferrari was highlighted by Vettel being the sole driver to crack the 1m46s whilst on the soft compound tyre. The next best effort came from Kvyat in the Red Bull, who was four-tenths of a second slower than the Ferrari.

Although Ferrari locked the top two positions, the story was again focused on Mercedes and how much pace they’re lacking. Lewis Hamilton could only manage a 1:46.082, which was a whopping 1.1 seconds adrift from Vettel’s benchmark.

Nico Rosberg failed to make an impression in the other Mercedes, he was four tenths off Hamilton’s time and 1.5 seconds from Vettel’s. Mercedes will definitely have their work cut out for them in qualifying, entering the session on the back foot for the first time this season.

Red Bull Racing continued their impressive weekend with Daniil Kvyat in third and Daniel Ricciardo in fourth. Kvyat continued to hold an edge over Ricciardo this weekend, spending a good portion of the session occupying the top spot.

Ricciardo was the first of the top runners to make the switch to the super soft tyres and went quickest, although his time was far from convincing as it was only three and a half tenths quicker than Vettel’s time on the soft compound.

McLaren made a massive improvement as Fernando Alonso broke into the top ten and finished seventh, just 0.014 seconds slower than Rosberg’s best time. Jenson Button was a bit further down the grid in thirteenth, finishing a tenth behind Nico Hülkenberg.

The Toro Rosso duo of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen finished the session in the top ten once again, which confirmed the new major upgrade brought to Singapore is having a positive effect on the STR10.

Manor enjoyed a trouble free session with both Alexander Rossi and Will Stevens completing more laps than anyone else in the field, in order to make up for yesterday’s incidents. Rossi racked up a total of 26 laps and finished 2.7 seconds ahead of Stevens, who lapped the street circuit 22 times.

Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top ten for Sauber 1.8 seconds off Vettel’s benchmark.

2015 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix – Free Practice 3 Results
Pos	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF15-T	1:45.682		12
2.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari SF15-T	1:46.132	+ 0.450	12
3.	Daniil Kvyat	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB11	1:46.167	+ 0.485	19
4.	Daniel Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB11	1:46.359	+ 0.677	14
5.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W06 Hybrid	1:46.802	+ 1.120	15
6.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W06 Hybrid	1:47.223	+ 1.541	16
7.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda MP4-30	1:47.237	+ 1.555	14
8.	Carlos Sainz	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR10	1:47.301	+ 1.619	18
9.	Max Verstappen	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR10	1:47.464	+ 1.782	17
10.	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C34	1:47.568	+ 1.886	20
11.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW37	1:47.587	+ 1.905	20
12.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM08B	1:47.640	+ 1.958	16
13.	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda MP4-30	1:47.715	+ 2.033	14
14.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW37	1:47.733	+ 2.051	21
15.	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team Mercedes E23 Hybrid	1:47.817	+ 2.135	16
16.	Sergio Pérez	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM08B	1:48.002	+ 2.320	15
17.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team Mercedes E23 Hybrid	1:48.116	+ 2.434	15
18.	Felipe Nasr	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C34	1:48.932	+ 3.250	20
19.	Alexander Rossi	Manor Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03B	1:52.588	+ 6.906	26
20.	Will Stevens	Manor Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03B	1:55.293	+ 9.611	22