Malaysian GP: Hamilton beats Verstappen in FP3

Hamilton's best of 1:34.434 was much faster than the quickest time set yesterday and also over four tenths of a second faster than Verstappen in the Red Bull.

Nico Rosberg finished in third place, over six tenths of a second off Hamilton's pace ahead of qualifying.

Ferrari duo Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel completed the top five, albeit quite far from Hamilton's best.

Daniel Ricciardo appeared to continue to struggle over a single lap, the Australian winding up sixth over a second off the pace.

Fernando Alonso, with the engine used in the Italian Grand Prix back in his McLaren, finished at the bottom of the times as he focused on race work given his 45-place grid penalty.

The session started under cloudy skies which, added to showers overnight, made the track temperatures lower than yesterday.

With the frontrunners taking it easy at the start, it was the Renaults of Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer who set the early pace.

Ricciardo put Red Bull on top seven minutes into the running, the Australian posting a 1:36.8 on a new set of mediums as Pascal Wehrlein reported "engine hesitations" in his opening run in the Manor.

Rosberg looked set to go quickest with his first run at the 20-minute mark, but yellow flags at the end of his lap after Esteban Gutierrez spun meant the German aborted it.

In a double scare for Haas, Gutierrez's teammate Romain Grosjean went off at Turn 6 at the same time, the Frenchman reporting something was wrong with his car.

Sergio Perez took the opportunity to briefly lead in the Force India, before Rosberg took first place with a 1:36.361 on mediums.

As Rosberg went quickest, Vettel ruined Hamilton's lap as the German spun his Ferrari at the final corner ahead of the Mercedes.

Hamilton went quickest on the following lap with a 1:35.612, also on medium tyres.

Ricciardo returned to the track at the halfway point, his Red Bull fitted with soft tyres, and beat Hamilton's time by 0.151s.

Verstappen moved up to third place with his first timed lap of the day, but said on the radio that he felt the engine was not working properly during the run.

Rosberg jumped to P1 with less than 20 minutes remaining with his first run on soft tyres, but his lap - a 1:35.293 - was still far from yesterday's best.

Hamilton upped the pace a few minutes later, however, the Briton outpacing his teammate by over eight tenths of a second with the fastest time of the weekend until that point despite not being completely happy with the handling.

"The car is still not better in the high speed," said Hamilton.

Rosberg improved but fell over six tenths short of his teammate's best as Vettel jumped up to third with a run on softs, but also far from the leader's time.

Verstappen continued to show strong form and went second quickest with some six minutes remaining, closing the gap to Hamilton to 0.445s.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	16	1'34.434
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	14	1'34.879	0.445	0.445
3	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	16	1'35.053	0.619	0.174
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	15	1'35.150	0.716	0.097
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	14	1'35.170	0.736	0.020
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	22	1'35.461	1.027	0.291
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	16	1'35.776	1.342	0.315
8	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	17	1'35.902	1.468	0.126
9	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	18	1'36.222	1.788	0.320
10	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	20	1'36.227	1.793	0.005
11	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	15	1'36.259	1.825	0.032
12	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	11	1'36.363	1.929	0.104
13	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	Ferrari	14	1'36.553	2.119	0.190
14	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	20	1'36.604	2.170	0.051
15	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	15	1'36.687	2.253	0.083
16	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	Renault	19	1'36.741	2.307	0.054
17	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	20	1'36.752	2.318	0.011
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	19	1'36.765	2.331	0.013
19	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari	18	1'37.106	2.672	0.341
20	Esteban Ocon	Manor	Mercedes	17	1'37.961	3.527	0.855
21	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	Mercedes	13	1'38.089	3.655	0.128
22	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	15	1'41.199	6.765	3.110