Abu Dhabi GP: Nico Rosberg heads Lewis Hamilton in final practice

The German set the fastest time of the weekend so far in the final practice session at the hot and sunny Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

His effort, a 1m41.424s, was 0.7s faster than the Briton's Friday benchmark and though Hamilton also improved he fell short of Rosberg's best by 0.369s.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso set the pace early on, the Spaniard the only super-soft tyre runner for the majority of the session.

Despite ending his session prematurely, getting out of his car with more than 20 minutes to go, his 1m42.653s remained the benchmark until the times started tumbling in the final few minutes of the hour-long session as everyone switched to the super-soft Pirelli tyre.

It was the Williams of Felipe Massa who was first of the remaining runners to switch and he ended up best of the rest behind the Mercedes, albeit over a second slower than Rosberg.

The Brazilian was fourth fastest ahead of the Red Bull of outgoing world champion Sebastian Vettel and the McLaren of Jenson Button. Vettel's team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was seventh fastest overall in his Red Bull ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the second Williams.

Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) and Kimi Raikkonen, who struggled throughout with the handling of his Ferrari, completed the top 10.