Mercedes and Ferrari are locked together after Sebastian Vettel set the quickest time in a very closely fought final practice session at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The fastest time was lowered almost every lap throughout the hour of running, with both Mercedes drivers and both Ferrari drivers holding the position at some stage, but eventually, it would be the German who emerged on top with a new track record of 1m04.070s.
Lewis Hamilton was within 0.03s of his main championship rival in second setting up the possibility for a brilliant battle come qualifying later on Saturday.
Their respective teammates have a little more pace to find as Valtteri Bottas was a tenth back in third, two-tenths clear of his fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen.
The threat from Red Bull appears minimal, however, with Max Verstappen over seven-tenths slower than Hamilton in fifth, and saw his final practice end by the side of the track after his car shut down shortly before Turn 4.
Daniel Ricciardo was a further tenth back in sixth and the home team might find themselves looking over their shoulder with Haas very much a threat with Romain Grosjean in seventh the last driver to go sub-1m05s.
The Frenchman’s teammate Kevin Magnussen was only just outside that mark though in eighth as the American squad lead an equally competitive midfield with Carlos Sainz ninth for Renault within the same tenth.
Charles Leclerc put himself back in contention for a second Q3 appearance in a week with P10 but, like Verstappen, would pull off the track in the final moments declaring an engine problem in his Sauber.
Thousandths of a second are likely to make the difference though, with Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly lapping in the same 1m05.2s bracket as Leclerc in P11 and P12 respectively.
Force India and McLaren appear the likely teams to be battling to avoid Q1 elimination though, with Esteban Ocon 13th ahead of Fernando Alonso in 14th with their respective teammates either side of what would be the knock out zone.
For Stoffel Vandoorne in 18th, his session was blighted by more kerb strikes damaging the front wings which had to be repaired after Friday.
Brendon Hartley was another who saw one endplate completely fall off his Toro Rosso after running wide at Turn 9 with the Kiwi and Marcus Ericsson also likely to be part of the scramble to avoid an early exit in qualifying.
Two cars that are almost certain to be out in Q1 though, are the two Williams’ as Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin complete the grid, as the only driver unable to break the 1m06s mark.
Full results can be seen below:
