Yas Marina (Abu Dhabi), 22 Nov 2014: Nico Rosberg climbed to the top of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix timesheet for the first time in final practice, beating title rival Lewis Hamilton by three tenths of a second at Yas Marina Circuit on Saturday ahead of the Formula One World Championship final round showdown on Sunday.

Hamilton was marginally quicker than his Mercedes team-mate in the opening sessions but in the final hour-long practice period before qualifying Rosberg deposed the Briton with impressive pace on the supersoft options tyre.

Rosberg set purple, fastest times through the flowing first sector and on the long straights of sector two but crucially as the winding final sector seemed to cause problems for everyone on the option tyre, Rosberg lost less time than his championship rival. He ended the session with a best time of 1:41.424. Hamilton did not complete a final flyer and ended the hour 0.369 down on the German.

Mercedes’ closest challenger in the session was Williams for whom Feipe Massa was third quickest, though he finished a full second adrift of Hamilton’s benchmark.

Fernando Alonso who completed his running in the first 35 minutes of the session, finished fourth, two tenths off Massa’s time. Alonso had been sidelined for almost all of the second practice session and it appeared he was keen to make up lost time amid concerns that the problems might reoccur. He ran for just eight laps in the session, using both tyre compounds, before returning to the Ferarri garage where work continued on his car.

Behind the Spaniard Sebastian Vettel was fifth for Red Bull Racing ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button and the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. Valtteri Bottas was eighth for Williams and the top 10 order was completed by Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat and the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.

2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Free Practice 3
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:41.424 19
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:41.793 0.369 17
3 Felipe Massa Williams 1:42.429 1.005 18
4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:42.653 1.229 8
5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:42.679 1.255 19
6 Jenson Button McLaren 1:42.768 1.344 20
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:42.773 1.349 14
8 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:42.794 1.370 19
9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:42.809 1.385 20
10 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:43.038 1.614 14
11 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:43.112 1.688 13
12 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:43.352 1.928 20
13 Sergio Perez Force India 1:43.360 1.936 19
14 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:43.501 2.077 18
15 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:43.643 2.219 24
16 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:43.718 2.294 17
17 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:43.778 2.354 18
18 Adrian Sutil Sauber1:44.022 2.598 22
19 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:45.044 3.620 16
20 Will Stevens Caterham 1:45.959 4.535 21

eom/FIA press release