2017 Chinese GP FP3: Ferrari and Vettel superior

Sebastian Vettel topped the final Free Practice session in Shanghai, as Ferrari continued to show the pace that helped them to win the Australian Grand Prix.

Vettel's time, set on super-soft Pirellis, of a 1:33.336, and teammate Kimi Raikkonen's 1:33.389 proved to be vastly quicker than the rest of the field; Valtteri Bottas' Mercedes the best of the rest, three-tenths adrift of the German's time.

Without the weather troubles that halted and even cancelled the two Free Practice sessions yesterday, leaving all 20 drivers with minimal running going into the day, the pit lane saw a flurry of cars leave once the session timer started.

Mercedes hide performance early on

It was left to Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo to set the early pace, a 1:37.411 proving to be the fastest time for the first 15 minutes; only beaten by the Australian as he strapped on a set of super-soft tyres.

Further down the order, both Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Bottas were on more conservative runs, despite both sporting the red wall tyres. Hamilton laid eighth early on, with Bottas two places behind after their initial runs. Bottas' problems were more visible - the maligned T-Wing coming loose and eventually flying into the gravel trap at the long spiral section of Turn 12.

On his next run, the Finn continued to struggle, locking up at the Turn 14 hairpin and running wide.

He wasn't the only driver to have an excursion. A sudden surge of engine power seemed to catch Jolyon Palmer out at Turn 11, whilst Marcus Ericsson's Sauber drifted away from him at the fast Turn 8.

Ferrari storm to the top

A fraction before the halfway point, Red Bull were swallowed by the two Ferraris. Raikkonen brought the benchmark down into the 1:34 bracket - bettering last year's pole position time by nine-tenths.

However, the Finn's time at the top was short lived. Vettel stormed to the top, coming close to breaking the ultimate lap record around the Shanghai International Circuit - set by a German in a Ferrari - Michael Schumacher in 2004.

Vettel's old team were struggling, unable to improve on their early pace-setting form. Ricciardo was relegated to seventh, with Max Verstappen one spots ahead of him - however, neither could get within one-and-a-half seconds of the pace. Unsurprising, given that the speed trap showed Ricciardo down 17 km/h on the Mercedes cars.

Vettel's nearest challenger changed frequently as the clock ticked into the final quarter-of-an-hour.

Bottas initially looked to have the place, just under a second off the supreme German, before Hamilton eclipsed his efforts. However, both were blown out the water by Raikkonen on a fresh set of super-softs, as the Finn ended up just five-hundredths slower than Vettel. Bottas improved once again to snatch third off of Hamilton, who indeed bettered his own time, but it was only enough for fourth fastest.

Felipe Massa showed brilliant pace in the Williams, ending the session in fifth. His teammate Lance Stroll secured a much needed eighth.

Promising signs for the Scuderia, as the sun poked its head out late on in the session. Will it be shining on them during the Qualifying hour too?