Mercedes pulls away from rivals in final practice
F1 Grand Prix, GP Malaysia, Sepang International Circuit
In sharp contrast with yesterday's FP2, Mercedes was a class apart. As Nico Rosberg edged his team mate, the two were a second fastest than their closest competition, headed by Kimi Raikkonen.
Apart from the Mercedes factory cars, competition was fairly close. Vettel, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Alonso, Massa, Bottas, Pérez and Kvyat were all within a second of Raikkonen's time.
Lotus also had a much better day as both its cars ran throughout the session without any issues. Worse off was McLaren who suddenly found themselves encountered by a lot of issues. Both drivers managed to come out on track, but neither set a representative laptime, resulting in their positions at the bottom of the timesheets.
Results
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:39.008 | - | 13 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:39.240 | 0.232 | 13 |
| 3 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:40.156 | 1.148 | 13 |
| 4 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:40.387 | 1.379 | 14 |
| 5 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:40.523 | 1.515 | 15 |
| 6 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:40.686 | 1.678 | 14 |
| 7 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:40.736 | 1.728 | 14 |
| 8 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1:40.781 | 1.773 | 20 |
| 9 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1:40.891 | 1.883 | 20 |
| 10 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1:41.029 | 2.021 | 15 |
| 11 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Str-Renault | 1:41.182 | 2.174 | 18 |
| 12 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Str-Renault | 1:41.441 | 2.433 | 18 |
| 13 | 99 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:41.552 | 2.544 | 15 |
| 14 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:42.041 | 3.033 | 17 |
| 15 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:42.749 | 3.741 | 16 |
| 16 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 1:43.539 | 4.531 | 20 |
| 17 | 4 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Ferrari | 1:43.977 | 4.969 | 16 |
| 18 | 17 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Ferrari | 1:44.170 | 5.162 | 18 |
| 19 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham-Renault | 1:44.457 | 5.449 | 12 |
| 20 | 10 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham-Renault | 1:46.015 | 7.007 | 7 |
| 21 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 2:05.555 | 26.547 | 4 |
| 22 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | No time | - | 5 |
