Sebastian Vettel again came home faster than the Mercedes in a rain-affected final practice ahead of qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.
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The four-time world champion put his Ferrari at the top of the timesheet on Friday afternoon and repeated the feat on Saturday morning, with a downpour over the Red Bull Ring effectively cutting the hour-long session in half.
The session had been red-flagged as Fernando Alonso’s stricken McLaren was cleared from the pit straight and by the time it was returned to the garage the rain put pay to any further dry runs.
Lewis Hamilton got to within 0.017 seconds of Vettel’s best effort, with the German the only driver to dip below the 70-second mark as he recorded a lap of one minute 09.994 seconds.
Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest for Ferrari, with the Force India of Sergio Perez fourth ahead of Hamilton’s team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Williams locked out the front row here last year, with 2014 pole sitter Felipe Massa sixth quickest ahead of the sister car of Valtteri Bottas.
#Vettel leads a very rainy #FP3. Last time it rained here in #Qualifying was in 1998 #AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/lcq77gYJun
— Yas Marina Circuit (@ymcofficial) June 20, 2015
Max Verstappen was eighth for Toro Rosso, with the Lotus pair of Pastor Maldonado and Roman Grosjean rounding out the top 10.
Nico Hulkenberg was 11th but he was the first man to try and run on intermediate tyres as the rain fell and quickly returned to the pits as he struggled to keep his Force India on the track.
The Sauber of Marcus Ericsson set the 12th fastest time with Carlos Sainz 13th for Toro Rosso, whose parent team Red Bull could only manage 14th place for Daniil Kvyat and 16th for Daniel Ricciardo.
The pair will also take grid penalties ahead of the race after engine component changes, as will Alonso who split the Red Bulls before his issues – with the Spaniard set for a 20-place drop.
Alonso is ‘sacrificing’ Austrian GP weekend http://t.co/7xMQ4ahmzN #F1 pic.twitter.com/pt1KYtmCez
— Crash.net F1 (@crash_F1) June 20, 2015
That will see the McLaren start in the pit-lane and likely serve a stop-go penalty during the race, with the same outcome for team-mate Jenson Button who was slapped with a 25-place penalty for fitting new power unit parts.
The 2009 world champion was down in 18th as Honda continue to struggle for speed, with the Sauber of Felipe Nasr 17th and the Manor pair of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi bringing up the rear of the field.
After Hulkenberg’s adventures into the gravel traps and run-off areas, the drivers remained in their garages until the final stages as they took to the track in case the rain does not clear ahead of qualifying.
