Rosberg pips Vestappen in Singapore GP final practice

Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets, less than a tenth of second ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Singapore GP here on Saturday.

For Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were third and fifth respectively, split by the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo in fourth. The Italian squad may have an uphill task in the fight for pole with Raikkonen half a second down on Rosberg.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton continued to struggle after failing to set a time on his qualifying simulation running. On his run on the faster ultrasoft tyres, Hamilton was two tenths of a second up on Rosberg in sector one but locked up his tyres and had to take the run-off area at turn seven, aborting his lap. His time of 1:45.806, 1.4 seconds off the leader, positioned him eighth and was set on the supersoft tyre.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and the under-pressure Daniil Kvyat were placed ahead of the reigning champion with Carlos Sainz and Valtteri Bottas completing the top ten.

Earlier in the session, Verstappen came across a track intruder in the form of lizard. The Dutch teenager came on the radio and said, "There is a giant lizard on the track" for which his engineer remarked "You came face to face with Godzilla then."