SPIELBERG, Austria -- Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time in final practice for the Austrian Grand Prix as Mercedes suffered a worrying failure on Nico Rosberg's car.
Vettel's hot lap was the fastest time of the weekend so far at 1:07.098, and was 0.136s quicker than teammate Kimi Raikkonen in second. Lewis Hamilton was 0.210s off Vettel's best time in third, but Mercedes' focus ahead of qualifying will be on what went wrong on Rosberg's car earlier in the session.
The left rear upper wishbone appeared to buckle as Rosberg rode the kerbs on the exit of Turn 2, steering the car from the rear towards the barriers on the left hand side. Rosberg went into the barrier nose first with the impact spinning him round, resulting in another hit on the right rear. The session was red flagged as a result and Mercedes' mechanics arrived quickly on the scene to recover the car.
Damage to the gearbox means he will join Vettel in serving a five-place grid penalty on the grid, but in the meantime the team faces a race against time to put the car back together for the start qualifying.
Mercedes sent Hamilton straight back out on track when the session resumed, but told him not to ride the kerbs. The world champion had already taken the best out of his ultra-soft tyres before the red flag and therefore his time was not fully representative as he completed his hot lap with an element of caution and on used rubber. Rosberg had set the fastest first sector of all when he suffered his suspension failure, suggesting Mercedes true pace has not yet been revealed.
Daniel Ricciardo was fourth fastest for Red Bull, 0.541s off Vettel and just over a tenth of a second faster than team-mate Max Verstappen. The two Williamses lined up behind the Red Bulls, with Valtteri Bottas leading Felipe Massa despite a spin towards the end of the session at the final corner.
Nico Hulkenberg was eighth fastest using the super-soft tyres, suggesting his 1.187s gap to Vettel could have been lower on the ultra-softs. The two McLarens rounded out the top ten with Jenson Button ahead of Fernando Alonso, while Sergio Perez was 11th using ultra-softs on the second Force India.
The only other drivers to set their fastest time on the super-soft were the two Haas drivers, which is promising for the American team after its drivers finished 12th and 14th fastest. The other surprise was Manor after Pascal Wehrlein finished the session in 13th place, way above the team's usual position in the competitive order.