Chinese GP: Vettel fastest in FP3, engine woes for Red Bull

Vettel headed a one-two for Ferrari after jumping Kimi Raikkonen in the final third of the session, but his former team Red Bull will head into qualifying with serious concerns.

Ricciardo pulled up just after the halfway mark in the one-hour session, exiting the penultimate corner with his Red Bull belching bursts of flame and plumes of smoke.

A virtual safety car was deployed as the marshals dealt with Ricciardo's latest Renault-induced disappointment, which comes less than a week after he retired from the Bahrain Grand Prix with an energy store failure.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told Sky Sports that "disappointing is probably an understatement" after the latest problem on only the third weekend.

"I think we've got a suspected turbo failure," he said. "That is what the analysis is at the moment.

"Whether its damaged the combustion engine only time will tell."

Ricciardo's teammate Max Verstappen ended up fourth fastest, splitting the two Mercedes, but also aired concerns to his team over the radio.

He declared "every time I push to the limiter I lose speed" and compared it to his feeling in Azerbaijan last year, when he eventually retired with an engine failure.

Heavy rain after Friday practice, which continued overnight, and a cold and overcast morning made track conditions poor at the start of the session, although there was no delay in cars hitting the track.

Raikkonen was first to set a lap time and Nico Hulkenberg briefly held top spot for Renault before speeds rapidly increased and Ferrari established itself at the head of the leaderboard.

The two drivers both had spells on top before the halfway point of the one-hour session, with Vettel holding the advantage at that point on a 1m33.689s.

Raikkonen then surpassed Lewis Hamilton's Friday benchmark on a 1m33.469s, before Vettel posted a 1m33.018s with just over 15 minutes to go.

Hamilton had a messy session, twice running onto the wet AstroTurf on the exit of the Turn 9 and 10 double left-hander.

His second trip wide was more dramatic, running all four wheels off-track on the exit of Turn 10 and spinning wildly before coming to a rest facing the wrong way on the edge of the circuit.

Verstappen then went fourth, just behind the lead Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, while Kevin Magnussen took advantage of the absent Ricciardo being shuffled back to 14th to take sixth for Haas.

Magnussen's teammate Romain Grosjean propped up the timesheets after stopping mid-session with fiery rear brakes.

The Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz's Renault and Sergey Sirotkin's Williams completed the top 10.

Additional reporting by Adam Cooper

Cla	#	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Time	Gap
1	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'33.018
2	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'33.469	0.451
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'33.761	0.743
4	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	1'33.969	0.951
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'34.057	1.039
6	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	1'34.329	1.311
7	11	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	1'34.445	1.427
8	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	1'34.456	1.438
9	55	Carlos Sainz.	Renault	Renault	1'34.582	1.564
10	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	Mercedes	1'34.741	1.723
11	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	1'34.841	1.823
12	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Renault	1'34.851	1.833
13	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Renault	1'34.977	1.959
14	28	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	Honda	1'34.991	1.973
15	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	1'35.061	2.043
16	10	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	Honda	1'35.079	2.061
17	18	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	1'35.375	2.357
18	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	Ferrari	1'35.497	2.479
19	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	1'35.679	2.661
20	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	1'35.756	2.738