MARINA BAY, Singapore -- Nico Rosberg beat Max Verstappen to the fastest time in the final practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix by just 0.059s in a session that will be best remembered for a track invasion by a lizard.
Rosberg hooked up a relatively clean lap in his Mercedes to set a 1:44.352 on ultra-softs, with Verstappen just 0.059s slower on his quick lap. Rosberg's time was marginally slower than his best effort in Friday's second practice, suggesting there is still plenty more to come from Mercedes in this evening's qualifying session.
Lewis Hamilton had shown a glimpse of that in the first sector by clocking a time 0.25s quicker than teammate Rosberg but locked his brakes heading into Turn 7 and ran wide. As a result, he finished the session eighth fastest based on a time he set on the super-soft tyres.
Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest for Ferrari, 0.508s off the pace of Rosberg, with Daniel Ricciardo a further 0.043s adrift after getting stuck behind a slow-moving Manor on his fast lap. Sebastian Vettel had to settle for fifth fastest after a mistake on the exit of Turn 7 saw him straddle the kerb and lose time, leaving him a total of 0.752s off Rosberg's benchmark.
But it was an unusual incident under a red flag ten minutes into the session that really stood out. The session had been stopped in order to clear debris left by Pascal Wehrlein's Manor after he damaged his rear wing against the crash barrier at Turn 11. In order to allow marshals to clear the debris from the track, the cars filtered back to the pits but as they did so they were were joined by an unusual visitor.
"There's a giant lizard on the track!" Max Verstappen said over his radio as a metre-long reptile scurried across the track at the exit of Turn 3. It stopped briefly in the middle of the track to let the Red Bull pass before running for the safety of the crash barrier on the others side of road. "You came face to face with Godzilla then," came the reply from Verstappen's mechanic as he cruised back to the pits. Once the circuit was clear of both debris and lizards, the session resumed with just a five-minute delay.
By the chequered flag, Force India's Nico Hulkenberg finished sixth fastest ahead of Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso, Hamilton, Carlos Sainz in the second Toro Rosso and Valtteri Bottas' Williams. Sergio Perez was 11th fastest ahead of Fernando Alonso, Esteban Gutierrez, Felipe Massa, Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button.
Felipe Nasr finished 17th ahead of Romain Grosjean, who again reported difficulties under braking. Marcus Ericsson was 19th ahead of Jolyon Palmer and the two Manors, which were over 4.5s off Rosberg's ultimate pace.