Melbourne (AFP) – Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel trumped Mercedes duo Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in practice ahead of Saturday’s qualifying for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix.
Vettel unleashed a best lap of one minute 23.380 seconds to finish top of the timesheets in FP3 in the final hit-out before qualifying to decide the grid positions for Sunday’s season-opening race.
The German’s time was 0.479 seconds quicker than Mercedes number two Bottas with Hamilton a further 0.011 seconds down on the lead time.
It was Ferrari’s best showing so far this weekend after their superior pre-season test times in Barcelona.
The session came to a premature halt when Canadian Lance Stroll crashed his Williams into a barrier and brought out the red flag.
Stroll came to grief on the approach to turn 11/12 and the car’s right-rear end slid into the barrier.
Ferrari’s other driver Kimi Raikkonen was fourth quickest from Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo in a Red Bull.
Raikkonen’s Ferrari came to a stop early in the session and was told through the team radio that he had a rear-left puncture. Following a short delay, he returned to the pits.
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