Sebastian Vettel put a subdued Friday behind him and leapt to the top of the timings in the final practice session ahead of qualifying at the Azerbaijan GP.
The German would post a 1m43.091s in his Ferrari, a tenth of a second slower than the fastest time of the weekend so far, but enough to be four-tenths clear of both Mercedes, teammate Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen all of whom were covered by just 0.117s.
Red Bull’s pace remains somewhat of an unknown, however, after not opting to complete any true low-fuel runs until the end, but then would be compromised to just a single warm-up lap as a crash for Sergey Sirotkin with 10 minutes to go caused a seven-minute red flag period.
Friday pacesetter Daniel Ricciardo would not complete a representative time as a result, ending the session down in 12th, nevertheless, a close battle between the top three teams does appear on the cards.
Force India continue to use their traditional strategy of optimising top speed to good effect with Sergio Perez taking sixth with Esteban Ocon also inside the top 10 in ninth.
Kevin Magnussen also looks a strong contender for Q3 in seventh, though his Haas teammate Romain Grosjean was struggling massively under braking and with the rear of his car, in a situation eerily similar to last year, with the Frenchman down in 15th.
Lance Stroll was eighth for Williams with Sirotkin doing enough for tenth before crashing hard into the wall at Turn 3, though it’s unlikely those positions will be maintained when everyone goes maximum attack in qualifying.
Some teams are faltering though, with Fernando Alonso 11th and Stoffel Vandoorne 18th as McLaren’s weakness over a single lap continues. Renault too are way down the order with Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg 16th and 17th after focusing on the Supersoft tyre.
Though Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc could well be the names to watch punching above their weight in qualifying, as the former GP2/F2 champions claimed 13th and 14th.
Full classifications can be seen below:
