World champion ends session just 0.069s faster than Ferrari driver ahead of qualifying
Tuesday 21 April 2015 11:58, UK
Lewis Hamilton was fastest in final practice at the Bahrain GP on Saturday ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg.
The world champion lapped the 5.412km track in a time of 1:34.599 in his Mercedes but Vettel's Ferrari was just 0.069s slower. What that means ahead of qualifying, which starts at 6pm local time (4pm BST), depends on several factors - not least, as was the case in P1 on Friday, that conditions were not particularly representative of those expected both later and in Sunday's floodlit race.
Behind Vettel came Nico Rosberg's Mercedes, with Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari fourth.
The top 10 was completed by Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Felipe Massa (Williams), Pastor Maldonado (Lotus), Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) and Felipe Nasr (Sauber).
The suspicion that the hour was not necessarily vital in the context of the weekend was heightened by a slow start, although Jenson Button was straight out on track in his McLaren-Honda.
Button complained of a lack of rear grip on his MP4-30 throughout but still set the 11th fastest time, about 1.9s slower than Hamilton. Team-mate Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, was 16th.
The session was red-flagged halfway through when Daniil Kvyat spun his Red Bull at Turn 4, the Russian perhaps revealing a touch of inexperience by letting his car trickle harmlessly backwards across the track - and straight into a gravel trap. Even so, he returned to action late on and ended up 12th fastest.
At that stage, Raikkonen (1:36.973) was fastest on the medium tyre, 0.2s clear of Vettel with Bottas third and Rosberg 0.4s off the pace in fourth. Hamilton – who again complained that his seat was too hot during the session – was ninth.
With about 15 minutes to go, Rosberg became the first of the big-hitters to try for a lap on softs. Hamilton went about 0.4s faster before Vettel flashed past the start-finish line seconds later – the Ferrari fractionally slower but still closer to the pace at this stage of a weekend than he has been all season.
