Monaco GP: Vettel pips Hamilton in final practice

Vettel's best of 1:14:650, however, was still slower than the time set by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo on Thursday.

The Ferrari driver beat Hamilton by 0.018s seconds, as the top four drivers were separated just less then two tenths.

Nico Rosberg finished third in the second Mercedes, ahead of Ricciardo, who was 0.157s off Vettel's pace.

Max Verstappen completed the top five, but the Dutchman - who made contact with the wall late in the session - was over four tenths off.

Toro Rosso duo Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz wound up sixth and seventh, ahead of Sergio Perez in the quickest Force India.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen had a subdued session and finished down in ninth, nearly a second behind his teammate.

Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10 in the second Force India.

Story of the session

Raikkonen registered the first time of the session four minutes in, but the Finn's time was seven seconds off the pace set on Thursday by Ricciardo.

The Finn upped the pace throughout his run and quickly improved to a more competitive 1:16.220 on his third lap with the ultrasoft tyres.

Rosberg dipped in the 1:15s to take first place, but not before sending his car airborne after hitting the kerbs at the Swimming Pool chicane too hard.

Hamilton was next to take the top spot with a 1:15.909 before Jolyon Palmer crashed against the barriers again after losing control of his car at the Swimming Pool.

Luckily for the Renault driver, the contact was light and he could return to the pits with a damaged rear end.

After the yellow flags were gone, a 1:15.433 from Vettel put the German in first place by nearly fourth tenths of a second.

He was soon demoted by Rosberg, who posted a best of 1:15.181 on the seventh lap of his run on ultrasofts. Vettel also improved, but fell 0.027s short of Rosberg's time.

After the 25-minute mark, Ricciardo moved up to second place, just 0.011s behind Rosberg, as teammate Verstappen jumped to fifth, making it five cars in less than two tenths.

On his second timed lap of the run, however, Ricciardo set a new benchmark, becoming the first man to dip into the 1:14s in FP3 (1:14.807). Verstappen also improved and made it a Red Bull 1-2 at the head of the times.

Before the halfway point, Hamilton jumped from ninth to sixth, seven tenths of the pace.

After a period without improvements, Vettel went quickest with 14 minutes to go with a 1:14.650, still slower than Ricciardo's best from FP2.

Verstappen triggered a yellow flag period just seconds later after sliding into the wall at Massenet, damaging the right side of his Red Bull and having to coast back to the pits.

The yellow flags appeared again with 10 minutes left when Esteban Gutierrez went off at Ste Devote, the Mexican avoiding contact with the walls.

Hamilton finally showed his cards with eight minutes to go, the Briton moving up to second, 0.018s slower than Vettel, but it appeared he would have gone quickest had he not found traffic at La Rascasse.

Another yellow flag period was caused by Perez with five minutes remaining, the Force India driver running off at Mirabeau.

Pascal Wehrlein had the same problem - but at Ste Devote - an instant later, before Kevin Magnussen also ran wide and had to park his Renault.

Free practice 3 results

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari SF16-H	1:14.650
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid	1:14.668	+0.018
3	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid	1:14.772	+0.122
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull RB12	1:14.807	+0.157
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull RB12	1:15.081	+0.431
6	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso STR11	1:15.259	+0.609
7	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso STR11	1:15.324	+0.674
8	Sergio Perez	Force India	Force India VJM09	1:15.368	+0.718
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari SF16-H	1:15.555	+0.905
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Force India VJM09	1:15.666	+1.016
11	Felipe Massa	Williams	Williams FW38	1:16.068	+1.418
12	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	McLaren MP4-31	1:16.257	+1.607
13	Jenson Button	McLaren	McLaren MP4-31	1:16.298	+1.648
14	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Williams FW38	1:16.347	+1.697
15	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas F1 Team	Haas VF-16	1:16.406	+1.756
16	Kevin Magnussen	Renault F1 Team	Renault R.S.16	1:16.412	+1.762
17	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	Haas VF-16	1:16.527	+1.877
18	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Sauber C35	1:16.867	+2.217
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Sauber C35	1:17.038	+2.388
20	Jolyon Palmer	Renault F1 Team	Renault R.S.16	1:17.482	+2.832
21	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing	Manor MRT05	1:17.595	+2.945
22	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing	Manor MRT05	1:18.180	+3.530