Valtteri Bottas remained just ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton as practice concluded at the French Grand Prix.
As the teams completed their final preparations ahead of qualifying, Mercedes gradually upped the pace as both drivers posted times in the low 1m30s bracket.
Bottas would finish just 0.041s clear of the sister Mercedes, although perhaps in Hamilton’s favour was his time came with one-lap older tyres after an error on his first attempt.
Ferrari is just within striking distance with Charles Leclerc mixing it with the Silver Arrows until the final runs, with the Monegasque four-tenths back in third.
Sebastian Vettel struggled to keep up initially but would improve to almost match his teammate in fourth.
A fierce battle is developing behind with Red Bull still just holding on as the third-best team. Max Verstappen took fifth ahead of Pierre Gasly but Lando Norris was just over a tenth behind the Dutchman in seventh.
Daniel Ricciardo kept Renault in the picture in eighth with Carlos Sainz close behind in ninth in the second McLaren.
Completing the top 10 would be Kimi Raikkonen in the Alfa Romeo, giving the Swiss team reason for optimism after a tough stretch of races.
Nico Hulkenberg will be desperate to move into what would be the Q3 positions from 11th, while Antonio Giovinazzi backed up Alfa’s improvement in P12.
The battle for the final places in Q2 look set to be between Toro Rosso, Racing Point and Haas as those six cars filled the six places between 13th and 18th.
And finally Williams continue to bring up the grid and it was a tricky session for George Russell as apparent power problems left the Briton stranded in the garage for much of the session.
The full results from Practice 3 can be seen below:
