Malaysia, FP3: Rosberg fights back to top final practice in Sepang

After Lewis Hamilton seized the initiative in yesterday’s afternoon free practice session, Nico Rosberg fought back in final practice, beating his Mercedes team-mate to top spot by just under two tenths of a second.

Rosberg had topped the opening practice session in Malaysia but in the afternoon qualifying simulations on the medium compound tyre he lost out to Hamilton. However in searing temperatures, which saw track temperatures topping 60˚C, Rosberg turned the heat up further.

First, he went quickest on the hard compound tyre, eclipsing Hamilton by two tenths of a second. He then repeated the feat when the field moved to the quicker medium tyre. Rosberg’s best time of 1:39.690 was 0.183 quicker than that of his championship-leading team-mate.

Behind the dominant Mercedes, Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest in the Ferrari SF15-T. The Finn’s session was compromised early on when he picked up a puncture and was recalled to the pit lane. He remained there for some time, however, as his team worked on the car’s suspension and didn’t set a timed lap until late in the hard-tyre phase of the session.

When he did though it immediately earned him second place and he was only toppled by Hamilton just before the switch to the softer rubber came.

Raikkonen’s pace on the medium tyre was similarly competitive and the Finn finished the session 0.555 behind Rosberg.

Sebastian Vettel was fourth in the second Ferrari, just two hundredths of a second adrift off his team-mate.

The Ferarris were followed by the Williams pairing of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. Fifth-placed Massa finished just over a tenth down on Vettel, while Bottas was just a hundredth of second behind his team-mate.

While Ferrari and Williams appeared closer on pace here in Malaysia, Mercedes were significantly faster in the middle sector, hinting perhaps that they were running more wing than their rivals and could afford to give up straight line speed and still run comfortably faster than their opposition.

Seventh place in the session went to Daniel Ricciardo, though the Red Bull Racing driver was nearly a second off the pace. Team-mate Daniil Kvyat might have continued the two-by-two theme of the session but the young Russian complained of taking a wrong direction on set-up and then of a locking front left wheel as he finished in P13. That mean that Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz finished eighth, four tenths of a second ahead of ninth-placed team-mate Max Verstappen who complained that his brakes were “horrible” during the session. The top ten order was completed by Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson.

At the back of the field Manor’s Roberto Merhi finished with a time of 1:46.64, 6.957s down on Rosberg’s best. That put him inside 107 per cent of the P1 time. The Spaniard’s team-mate Will Stevens was, however, four tenths further back a deficit that if it had been qualifying would have seen him outside the margin needed in order for him to race on Sunday.