Nico Rosberg maintained his advantage over Lewis Hamilton going into qualifying after topping the final practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix.
Rosberg's headline time of 1:23.078 beat the reigning world champion by 0.126s, but Hamilton had been quicker in the first two sectors on his quickest lap before losing 0.250s in the final sequence of corners. Hamilton made some major setup changes following two difficult Friday practice sessions, but despite closing the gap he is yet to beat Rosberg in a session this weekend.
Sebastian Vettel crossed in third position, just 0.147s behind Rosberg's time having lost 0.496s to the Mercedes in the final sector, suggesting Ferrari could be in the mix. With Barcelona a circuit less dependent on power many felt Ferrari had a better chance of competing this weekend but Mercedes is known to turn its engine up for qualifying, something which could still be significant this afternoon.
Behind Vettel, Max Verstappen finished ahead of Daniel Ricciardo for the first time this weekend and goes into qualifying with a tenth in hand over his Australian teammate. The Red Bull drivers both finished ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who appeared to still be struggling with the balance of his car and ended the session one second off the pace. Valtteri Bottas finished seventh for Williams ahead of Sergio Perez and Daniil Kvyat, who bounced back from a tricky Friday in ninth position.
Fernando Alonso continued McLaren's encouraging weekend by rounding off the top ten. Both McLarens are running upgrades to the floor and rear of the car, but only Jenson Button has the team's new front wing. Nico Hulkenberg finished 11th in the upgraded Force India which has had positive reactions from both drivers. For the first time this weekend Carlos Sainz finished a session behind new teammate Kvyat, two tenths behind the Russian on a weekend with increased attention on the fortunes of Red Bull and Toro Rosso's drivers.
Romain Grosjean's tough weekend for Haas continued as he finished 14th, complaining late in the session about the driving of Kevin Magnussen when the Renault driver was "not very nice" and pushed him wide at Turn 5. Button finished between Grosjean and Magnussen in 15th as he continues to chase an ideal setup with McLaren's upgraded package.
Gutierrez finished 17th, the same number of laps he completed for Haas, with the Mexican driver venting his frustration with the team on Friday after limited track time. Gutierrez had said the onus was on the team, not himself, to overcome the issues plaguing his side of the garage and he goes into qualifying just one tenth down on teammate Grosjean.
Jolyon Palmer, who completed a handful of laps on Friday after missing FP1 and suffering a puncture in FP2, added just 13 more to his name and finished 2.2s off the pace in 18th. Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson ensured both Sauber drivers finished ahead of Manor, with Pascal Wehrlein edging Rio Haryanto out by a tenth of a second at the foot of the timing screens