Lewis Hamilton powered to the top of the Australian Grand Prix timesheets, the defending world champion putting in a blistering soft tyre lap in final practice to eclipse second-placed Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari by seven tenths of a second, with Rosberg third, almost a second behind Hamilton.

Rosberg, though, appeared unfazed by the gap. Having minutes earlier set a ‘banker’ lap on the yellow-banded Pirelli tyres, the German appeared to decide there was little value in pushing the boundaries and was already out of his car and in conversation with his engineers. Qualifying then promises to be the usual tight battle between the Mercedes pair.

In the early phase of the final session Rosberg set the pace on the medium tyres with a lap of 1:29.364, but Hamilton toppled him with a 1:29.128.

Rosberg was the first of the frontrunners to try the soft tyres and he returned to the top of order with a time of 1:28.939, which he later improved to 1:28.821.

Vettel, though, was busy underlining the fact that Ferrari have made a significant step forward from last year.

The four-time champion was fourth quickest on the medium tyre, behind the Mercedes and Mercedes-powered Williams driver Valtteri Bottas and when he moved to the soft tyres for a late qualifying run he slotted into second with a time of 1:28.563.

Bottas dropped to fourth in the final shake-up, with Felipe Massa fifth. Kimi Raikkonen was sixth for Ferrari ahead of the solid looking E23 Lotus cars of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado. Carlos Sainz took the final top 10 spot with a time of 1:29.869, two seconds adrift of Hamilton’s best.

Sauber, who were forced to play catch-up after not running in FP2 and suffering problems with Marcus Ericsson’s car in FP2 were boosted by 11th place for Felipe Nasr in the final session with Ericsson 12th.  The Sauber drivers were split by 17-year-old Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen.

Elsewhere there was more trouble for Red Bull Racing. On Friday Daniel Ricciardo had posted just nine laps as he struggled with power unit issues. In FP3 the Australian again ground to a halt at the pit lane exit, though this time he was able to rejoin the action after being pushed back to his garage for work to be done on his RB11.

Team-mate Daniil Kvyat also spent some time in the garage with the team a software issue that led to an off early in the session. Ricciardo ended the session in 15th place with 10 laps on the board while Kvyat completed just six laps and claimed 18th place.

The two Red Bull drivers were separated by the McLarens of Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button, who managed 27 laps between them. Neither Manor Marussia car ran during the session.

Australian Grand Prix – Free Practice 3
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:27.867 11
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:28.563 13
3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:28.821 14
4 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:28.912 14
5 Felipe Massa Williams 1:28.988 18
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:29.017 13
7 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:29.481 12
8 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:29.864 15
9 Carlos Sainz Jr Toro Rosso 1:29.869 19
10 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:29.934 24
11 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:29.952 16
12 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:30.613 21
13 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:30.741 14
14 Sergio Perez Force India 1:30.993 17
15 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:31.185 10
16 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:31.391 14
17 Jenson Button McLaren 1:31.666 13
18 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull 1:32.830 6