Postpublished at 14:06 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
Mercedes on Twitter: There was less than 0.1s between Hamilton and Vettel at the top of the times. It's going to be a snug, red and silver affair, we reckon ;)
Summary
Hamilton on pole, Vettel 2nd, Rosberg 3rd, Raikkonen 4th
Hamilton dominant in Q1 & Q2
Alonso through to Q2 for first time this season
Button breaks down in Q1, will start last
Postpublished at 14:06 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
Positions 11-20published at 14:05 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
FP3 final standings: 11 Button, 12 Kvyat, 13 Ericsson, 14 Verstappen, 15 Perez, 16 Alonso, 17 Sainz, 18 Grosjean, 19 Stevens, 20 Merhi.
That's an encouraging performance for Jenson Button after yesterday's problems. Green shoots at McLaren?
Mercedes-Ferrari-Mercedes-Ferraripublished at 14:03 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
FP3 final standings: 1 Hamilton, 2 Vettel, 3 Rosberg, 4 Raikkonen, 5 Bottas, 6 Massa, 7 Maldonado, 8 Ricciardo, 9 Hulkenberg, 10 Nasr.
Hopes for a real battle for pole and victory are alive and kicking after that session.
Kvyat squeezes in a lappublished at 14:02 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
Kvyat's late lap on the softs was the only issue to resolve in those final moments of practice.
The Red Bull man goes 12th.
Chequered flagpublished at 14:00 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
Red Bull working hardpublished at 13:58 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
There's frantic work going on at Red Bull to get Danill Kvyat's car out for a hot lap on the softs after his earlier spin.
With just over two minutes remaining they get the job done and out he goes...
Three minutes to gopublished at 13:56 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
OK, three minutes to go.
Order is Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Bottas, Massa.
Turns out these times are a bit more like what we expected after all...
Get involved - caption competition #bbcf1published at 13:55 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
Ray Skudder: And if you twist your hands to your face, you become a Superhero!
Aron Bell: This is the amount of points we will get this weekend!
Tom Morgan: Now these wheels Fernando are round...
JPBoutros: Needs 'punch', not 'pinch', Ron.
Image source, APClose at the toppublished at 13:54 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes has just gone quickest with a time of 1:34.599 - 0.3s quicker than team-mate Nico Rosberg.
The Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel slots into second, just 0.069secs off Hamilton.
Image source, Getty ImagesRosberg moves to the summitpublished at 13:51 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
A 1:34.968 on the soft tyre puts Nico Rosberg top of the order. But Lewis Hamilton is going much quicker out there...
Hulkenberg goes quickestpublished at 13:48 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
Force India's Nico Hulkenberg is the first to blink on the yellow-walled rubber and goes fastest with a 1:36.421.
The Mercedes of Nico Rosberg is also on the soft and is on his out lap.
Soft tyres going onpublished at 13:47 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
We're going to see times coming down now.
McLaren team radiopublished at 13:47 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
Jenson Button: "It feels like we had downgraded power on that lap."
Button is sitting 10th at the moment and escaping the reliability issues that dogged his progress yesterday.
Current top fivepublished at 13:42 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
1. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) - 1:36.973
2. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
3. Valtteri Bottas (Williams)
4. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
5. Felipe Nasr (Sauber)
All times at the moment are being set on the medium tyre.
Quick caption competition - #bbcf1published at 13:40 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
Since we're all agreed the times in this session aren't going to tell us an awful lot, maybe we should take this chance for a quick caption competition.
What wisdom might be being imparted here?
Image source, APGreen lightpublished at 13:36 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
Red Bull cleared. Back out there lads.
Sensor problem for Alonsopublished at 13:35 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
Tom Clarkson
BBC F1 pit-lane reporter"There's a sensor issue on Fernando Alonso's car. He missed the first 15 minutes of the session because the car wouldn't start.
"They won't elaborate as to what the problem was. They're still trying to get on top of it."
Just as we publish that entry, Alonso heads out on track. The curse of live texting...
Red flagpublished at 13:32 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
They're going to have to get the JCB out to remove that Red Bull so the red flag is flying.
Kvyat spins offpublished at 13:29 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
The Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat has gone off through turn four.
The young Russian looked well in control as he kissed the apex of the corner but the rear end got away from him and he spun, before rolling into the gravel on the opposite side of the track.
As BBC commentator Allan McNish rightly observes: "The thing he'll be kicking himself about is rolling back into the gravel, which seemed unnecessary."
Dust and wind a problem for driverspublished at 13:29 British Summer Time 18 April 2015
Tom Clarkson
BBC F1 pit-lane reporter"That dust is not helping cars and neither is the wind. We've just had a gust of 20mph, which will not be helping these cars."
As it's hard to show the effect of the wind in Sakhir today, the hair of Williams development driver Susie Wolff will have to do the job instead.
Image source, Getty Images