Chinese GP: Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo leads damp final practice

The Australian driver was quickest in the damp, slippery conditions ahead of the Williams of Felipe Massa.

Rain started to fall at the beginning of the session and intermittently throughout the hour. More rain is expected for qualifying later on Saturday afternoon.

The bad weather meant running was limited, with the Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren teams sitting out most of the session.

In the late stages, both Nico Rosberg and Kevin Magnussen emerged in the last 10 minutes for a run but did not complete a timed lap.

Romain Grosjean was third quickest in his Lotus, but there were more problems for his team-mate Pastor Maldonado.

Despite setting the sixth fastest time he was ordered by his team to stop his car with 20 minutes of the session remaining and pulled to the side of the track at Turn 10.

Just ahead of Maldonado on the timesheets was Kimi Raikkonen, who emerged from his garage for a late run to set the fifth fastest time overall in his Ferrari.

Nico Hulkenberg was fourth fastest in his Force India, while Daniil Kvyat was seventh in his Toro Rosso.

Next up was Valtteri Bottas who was one of the drivers who was caught out in the tricky conditions, spinning his Williams on the exit of Turn 10 in the mid-stage of the hour, but able to continue unharmed.

On his installation lap Jean-Eric Vergne was complaining about a problem with his Renault power unit in the back of the Toro Rosso, but managed five laps in total.

Track temperatures were particularly low - 14 degrees C air and 15 degrees on track. Qualifying commences at 2pm local time.

Pos  Driver             Team/Car              Time       Gap      Laps
 1.  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault      1m53.958s           5
 2.  Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes     1m54.492s  +0.534s  5
 3.  Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault         1m54.514s  +0.556s  4
 4.  Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes  1m55.032s  +1.074s  6
 5.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari               1m55.062s  +1.104s  4
 6.  Pastor Maldonado   Lotus-Renault         1m55.228s  +1.27 s  12
 7.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault    1m55.235s  +1.277s  7
 8.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes     1m55.381s  +1.423s  5
 9.  Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes      1m55.673s  +1.715s  4
10.  Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes  1m56.019s  +2.061s  6
11.  Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull-Renault      1m56.233s  +2.275s  8
12.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso-Renault    1m56.380s  +2.422s  9
13.  Adrian Sutil       Sauber-Ferrari        1m56.760s  +2.802s  8
14.  Max Chilton        Marussia-Ferrari      1m56.841s  +2.883s  13
15.  Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari        1m57.468s  +3.51 s  9
16.  Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault      1m57.812s  +3.854s  12
17.  Jules Bianchi      Marussia-Ferrari      1m57.976s  +4.018s  14
18.  Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault      1m59.507s  +5.549s  6
19.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes                                  4
20.  Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes                          3
21.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari                                   1
22.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes                                  3