BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in the final practice session for this weekend's Grand Prix of Europe, beating Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg to the fastest time around the Baku street circuit by 0.258s.
Mercedes was in a class of its own during the hour session, with a gap of over a second to its nearest rival Force India in third. As a result, the battle for pole position looks set to be a straight fight between Hamilton and Rosberg, but it could be closer than the headline times suggest. Neither Hamilton or Rosberg hooked up the perfect lap during the session, with Hamilton running wide at Turn 1 on his first attempt on fresh super-soft tyres while Rosberg failed to hook his three fastest sectors together on one lap. Had Rosberg been able to do so, his theoretical fastest lap would have been 0.019s quicker than Hamilton, hinting at a closer battle for the top spot come qualifying
Nico Hulkenberg was third fastest as Force India finished behind Mercedes for the second practice session in a row. The gap of 1.188s to Hamilton would be fairly normal for a Force India in final practice at any other race, but the lack of Red Bulls, Ferraris and Williamses filling the gap ahead is unexpected. Hulkenberg's teammate Sergio Perez had been third quickest on Friday and was also on a quick lap at the end of the session when he became the second driver to wreck his car against the circuit walls. Much like Ricciardo in FP1, he clipped the barrier on the exit of Turn 15, ripped the right-rear wheel off his Force India and slowly came to a halt at the next available marshals post. The team will face a tight turnaround to get the car fixed ahead of qualifying.
Ricciardo managed the fourth fastest time for Red Bull but finished his session early with just 13 laps to his name. It was unclear if a problem caused the early stoppage, but teammate Max Verstappen was also down on laps with just 14 by the end of the hour and the seventh fastest time.
Sebastian Vettel was fifth fastest, 1.278s off Hamilton, as Ferrari continued to struggle to hook a quick lap. Teammate Kimi Raikkonen was down in tenth place after a loss of power during one of his runs interrupted his session.
Jenson Button managed to put McLaren in the top ten despite being caught behind Hamilton's slow-moving Mercedes at Turn 6 during one of his quick laps. He took the eighth fastest time ahead of Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso, Raikkonen's Ferrari in 10th and teammate Fernando Alonso in 11th.
Felipe Massa again struggled for pace on a track where Williams was expected to be competitive, finishing the session in 14th behind Romain Grosjean and Carlos Sainz. Massa's teammate Valtteri Bottas has been a better indicator of Williams' true pace this weekend, but failed to set a time after running over a loose drain cover in the pit lane. The resulting damage to his sidepod was still being repaired when the session finished.