Vettel gains advantage in final practice

F1 Grand Prix, GP Austria, Red Bull Ring

Sebastian Vettel had the advantage in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver edged out the fastest man of Friday, Lewis Hamilton, followed by his Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas.

Having received confirmation of a 5-place grid penalty for a gearbox change his team had to carry out on his car late on Friday, Hamilton today encountered an apparent brake failure towards the end of the session.

The Briton looked set to top the session just like on Friday, but after some fast laps, he got stuck in traffic, and another few laps later went straight on while braking for Turn 3. As a cloud of brake dust came off the right front brake, the left front tyre completely locked up. Hamilton went onto the escape road and slowly returned to the pits. Mercedes later confirmed the incident happened "due to a problem on the team side, and not an issue with the components supplied by a third party".

Kimi Raikkonen enjoyed the session by going 4th fastest, for the first time this weekend not topped by any of the Red Bull Racing cars, who now had to be content with 5th and 6th.

Next up were both Haas cars, who seemed considerably more at ease on the ultra soft tyre than any other compound. Toro Rosso's drivers completed the top 10 after being out of the top 10 in both Friday sessions.

This was mostly at the expense of McLaren Honda, as their cars were 13th and 15th, with Vandoorne again ahead of Alonso, just like in FP1.

Contrary to expectations, Williams continued to struggle and Sergio Perez didn't get properly up to speed during this session.

Both Sauber cars again ended up slowest.