Lewis Hamilton fastest in final Bahrain Grand Prix practice

Lewis Hamilton has posted the fastest time in the final practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix, finishing less than a tenth of a second ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

Part of the session was lost as the red flag was brought out when Daniil Kvyat beached his Red Bull in a gravel trap after spinning midway through the hour.

Hamilton was not without his struggles, running wide early in the practice before recovering to set the fastest time of the day.

It looked like Mercedes were dominating the pace as Hamilton and Nico Rosberg jumped to the top of the leaderboard, but Vettel and Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen reduced their times late on to split the Silver Arrows.

McLaren continued to struggle for pace, with Jenson Button complaining to his race engineer that he felt a loss of power, leaving him 11th, while Fernando Alonso could only manage 16th.

1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes 2. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) 3. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 4. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 5. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 6. Felipe Massa (Williams) 7. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) 8. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) 9. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) 10. Felipe Nasr (Sauber) 11. Jenson Button (McLaren) 12. Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull) 13. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) 14. Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso) 15. Sergio Perez (Force India) 16. Fernando Alonso (McLaren) 17. Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso) 18. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 19. Will Stevens (Manor) 20. Roberto Merhi (Manor)