SEPANG, Malaysia -- Lewis Hamilton finished final practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix with a comfortable margin over the rest of the field, while Nico Rosberg struggled to match his teammate's pace and fell into the battle between Red Bull and Ferrari.
Hamilton was 0.445s quicker than Red Bull's Max Verstappen in second, who managed to beat Rosberg by 0.174s and force the German to settle for third. Rosberg made a mistake on his first flying lap, but will be concerned by the gap to Hamilton that currently stands at 0.619s.
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth fastest in the Ferrari, just 0.097s off Rosberg, as the Italian team hopes to put itself in a position to emulate last year's victory at Sepang. Sebastian Vettel improved on his second attempt on soft tyres and was just 0.020s off his teammate by the end of the session.
Daniel Ricciardo was over a second off the pace of Hamilton, but set his quick lap earlier in the session when conditions were not at their best. However, the gap of 0.582s to teammate Verstappen means he will need to up his game significantly in order to continue his recent run of strong results against the Dutch teenager.
Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas and Carlso Sainz occupied seventh, eighth and ninth place, in what appears to be a close battle between Force India, Williams and Toro Rosso. Just 0.037s split Sainz in ninth and Sergio Perez in 11th, suggesting the battle for a place in Q3 is going to be extremely tight.
Jenson Button was 12th fastest for McLaren as he ran Honda's updated exhaust for the first time. Teammate Fernando Alonso finished last, but with a 45-place grid penalty hanging over him he had no reason to chase lap times and instead focused on setting his car up for the race.
Once again, Renault appear to be knocking on the door of the midfield with Jolyon Palmer up in 14th, splitting the two Haas drivers. Both Esteban Gutierrez and Romain Grosjean spun during the session, with Grosjean particularly vocal over team radio about the problems he was facing in the cockpit.
Daniil Kvyat was 17th ahead of the two Saubers and two Manors in positions 18 to 21.