Hamilton heads up Mercedes 1-2 in final Abu Dhabi practice

Lewis Hamilton led Mercedes to a one-two finish in the final Formula 1 practice session of the season ahead of qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday as Ferrari finished over half a second off the pace.

Hamilton finished fastest in FP2 on Friday evening, edging clear of Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel, but was able to stretch the legs of the Mercedes W08 car in final practice en route to a one-two finish for the German marque.

Hamilton turned in a best lap time of 1:37.627 to finish two-tenths of a second clear of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas as Ferrari opted against completing a fast qualifying simulation late in the session.

Kimi Raikkonen led Ferrari's charge in third place, finishing half a second back from Hamilton at the front, while teammate Vettel ended FP3 just behind in fourth.

Red Bull struggled to challenge either Mercedes or Ferrari at the front as Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen took P5 and P6 respectively, with McLaren emerging as the best of the rest with Fernando Alonso taking seventh. Teammate Stoffel Vandoorne was fortunate to get away with a high-speed spin at the penultimate corner, keeping his car out of the barrier before finishing the session eighth overall.

Carlos Sainz Jr. led Renault into the top half by taking ninth, while Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10 for Force India.

The only major incident of FP3 came when the session was briefly put under a Virtual Safety Car at the halfway point when a parasol used at once of the marshal posts was picked up in the wind and blown onto the track, coming to rest on the racing line at the Turn 8/9 chicane.

The drivers passing through were able to avoid it, with the session returning to green once it had been recovered by a marshal.

Qualifying in Abu Dhabi takes place at 5pm local time (1pm GMT).