Lewis Hamilton was quickest in final practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix, as the McLaren driver edged out the Red Bull of Friday pacesetter Mark Webber.
Hamilton set his best time of 1m36.360s with four minutes to go, during the traditional late scramble on soft tires.
Webber was 0.29sec slower when he completed his qualifying-style run a few minutes later, so had to settle for second, while his world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel was only fifth, having been in the thick of traffic on his final flying lap. Jenson Button was third in the second McLaren.
Vettel had ended up on top during the "race preparation" part of the session before drivers switched to the soft tires in the final 10 minutes, the Red Bull getting down to a 1m38.016s. The champion had earlier complained that his DRS wing did not feel like it was working correctly, so pitted for the problem to be investigated, and then lost his on-board camera on his last run.
Renault had a strong session, showing no ill effects from the time lost to yesterday's suspension failures as Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov took fourth and seventh.
Fernando Alonso had a spell on top for Ferrari after being one of the first to try soft tyres, but by the end he was down to sixth, two places ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa.
Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) was ninth, followed by the two Mercedes.
At the rear of the field, both Hispanias were again outside the 107 percent qualifying margin based on practice pace, with Tonio Liuzzi – who only made it out for the final 11 minutes – a tenth of a second away from making the theoretical cut and Narain Karthikeyan a further 0.236s slower.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap Laps
1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m36.340s 11
2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m36.630s + 0.290s 16
3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m36.762s + 0.422s 14
4. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m37.115s + 0.775s 17
5. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m37.175s + 0.835s 14
6. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m37.284s + 0.944s 11
7. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m37.297s + 0.957s 17
8. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m37.762s + 1.422s 12
9. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m38.059s + 1.719s 18
10. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.300s + 1.960s 20
11. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.307s + 1.967s 20
12. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m38.448s + 2.108s 17
13. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m38.464s + 2.124s 16
14. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m38.597s + 2.257s 15
15. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m38.665s + 2.325s 14
16. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m38.681s + 2.341s 16
17. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m38.716s + 2.376s 14
18. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m38.864s + 2.524s 13
19. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m39.260s + 2.920s 19
20. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m39.699s + 3.359s 15
21. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m41.215s + 4.875s 17
22. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m41.414s + 5.074s 18
23. Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m43.147s + 6.807s 6
24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m43.383s + 7.043s 11
All timing unofficial