Mercedes put themselves in a commanding position as Valtteri Bottas led final practice at the Qatar Grand Prix.
As teams completed final preparations ahead of qualifying, the Finn continued his impressive pace around Losail posting a 1m22.310s to finish just 0.078s ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Meanwhile, problems persisted at Red Bull who continued running repairs on their rear wings, with the DRS seen flapping strongly when open.
The medium-speed corners also appeared their biggest weakness versus their rivals, with Max Verstappen three-tenths slower in third.
On the contrary, Pierre Gasly continues to shine in fourth despite a strange spin at Turn 10, ahead of Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull.
An interesting battle is developing in the midfield between Ferrari and Alpine, with their four drivers in P6-P9.
Charles Leclerc was one of two drivers to have spins at Turn 2 along with Mick Schumacher in the Haas.
Yuki Tsunoda backed up AlphaTauri’s pace in P10.
McLaren had hoped the high cornering speeds would help them but instead Lando Norris was 11th and Daniel Ricciardo 13th, as Sebastian Vettel split them in P12.
George Russell was 14th ahead of Lance Stroll, who described his car as “s**t” on the radio.
The two Alfa Romeo’s followed with Kimi Raikkonen marginally ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi.
Nicholas Latifi was 18th, Schumacher 19th and Nikita Mazepin missed out on any running for the second consecutive session in 20th due to engine issues.
Full results from final practice can be seen below:
