Ferrari looks set to give Mercedes a fight in Bahrain this weekend after Sebastian Vettel clocked a time just 0.069s off Lewis Hamilton in the final practice session ahead of qualifying.

Bahrain Grand Prix - FP3 Time (Laps) 1. HAM Mercedes 1:34.599 (13) 2. VET Ferrari 1:34.668 (14) 3. ROS Mercedes 1:34.968 (16) 4. RAI Ferrari 1:35.141 (13) 5. BOT Williams 1:35.393 (18) 6. MAS Williams 1:35.471 (15) 7. MAL Lotus 1:36.307 (14) 8. RIC Red Bull 1:36.335 (8) 9. HUL Force India 1:36.421 (13) 10. NAS Sauber 1:36.429 (18) 11. BUT McLaren 1:36.488 (14) 12. KVY Red Bull 1:36.548 (7) 13. ERI Sauber 1:36.612 (17) 14. VES Toro Rosso 1:36.684 (11) 15. PER Force India 1:36.727 (14) 16. ALO McLaren 1:36.899 (11) 17. SAI Toro Rosso 1:36.979 (14) 18. GRO Lotus 1:37.151 (17) 19. STE Manor 1:39.745 (12) 20. MER Manor 1:40.541 (14)

On Friday Ferrari showed impressive long-run pace that should put its cars in the fight on Sunday, but in FP3 it was able to rival Mercedes on one-lap pace too. Hamilton was impressively quick in the final sector on soft tyres, but Vettel was quicker in the first sector and Nico Rosberg fastest in the middle sector. Over the entire lap the Ferrari of Vettel managed to split the Mercedes, 0.3s clear of Rosberg and nearly 0.5s faster than team-mate Kimi Raikkonen as well as being 6km/h faster than Hamilton in the speed trap.

Williams remains in no-man's land between the top four and the rest of the field, with Valtteri Bottas fifth fastest and Felipe Massa sixth. Roughly a second behind was Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus, who managed to just beat Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull to eighth.

However, a caveat to all of the top times were the track conditions. The sun will set ahead of qualifying in the evening, meaning track temperature should drop by at least another six or seven degrees. What's more a strong headwind along the start-finish straight has the potential to make or break a lap by making the braking zone tricky to judge into Turn 1 and destabilising the car in other corners around the track.

The wind may have been a contributing factor in Daniil Kvyat's spin midway through FP3 when he lost the rear of his Red Bull at Turn 4 and rolled into the gravel. His car was recovered to the pits for a late run at the end, but he completed just seven laps during the full hour.

The margin for error looks very slim outside the top six with less than a second separating Maldonado in seventh and his team-mate Romain Grosjean in 18th. McLaren remains in that midfield mix, with Jenson Button 11th fastest and Fernando Alonso 16th, although in recent races the teams around McLaren have found more performance when it matters in qualifying.