Vettel tops final practice at Abu Dhabi

F1 Grand Prix, GP Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina Circuit

Sebastian Vettel put the pressure on Mercedes in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Abu Dhabi GP. Not only that, but Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen were also faster than the Mercedes duo.

Ferrari was first to take on the ultrasofts, with Raikkonen topping the timesheet during most of the session. Mercedes opted to run on super softs for their first laps, only switching to the fastest tyre 15 minutes from the end.

Ten minutes from the end, Vettel emerged on top again, having fitted another set of the ultra soft tyres. He was fastest in two of the three sectors, thereby taking P1 away from Hamilton.

Raikkonen and Verstappen joined the party a few minutes later as their improvements also moved them ahead of the Mercedes duo. Hamilton did attempt to improve later on as well, but was eventually left complaining about his right front brakes, telling the team "you need to check these brakes, I keep on getting the same issues". Indeed, just like on Friday, Hamilton was repeatedly locking his front wheels.

At Haas, Romain Grosjean was struggling again, reporting the he suffered badly from oversteer. He later pitted to make some adjustment, but towards the end found himself going wide through turn 1 on the start of a flying lap, saying "the fronts are nowhere near ready", indicating tyre warmup issues on his car.

Other drivers were less vocal about their issues, but that doesn't mean there weren't any, as several spun during the one-hour session, including Sainz and Massa in the final 5 minutes.