Vettel tops final practice in Monaco

The German put a brilliant lap together in the closing stages to clock a 1m16.143s as Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton were scrappy on their qualifying simulations.

Rosberg ended the session 0.218 seconds adrift of Vettel, with Hamilton a further three tenths further back on the streets of Monte Carlo.

After rain washed out most of second practice, teams wasted no time sending their drivers out on track to make up for lost time and gather crucial data for qualifying and the race.

Mercedes ran a different programme from most of its rivals, sending Hamilton and Rosberg straight out on the super-softs that could not be tried on Thursday while everyone else - except for Manor - focused on running the softs.

Hamilton and Rosberg did 10 laps on the super-soft rubber, performing cool-down laps in between each flying lap, with the German unable to get closer than half-a-second to the Briton.

The session was red-flagged just before the half-hour mark when Kimi Raikkonen glanced the barriers at Sainte Devote.

Quick work from the marshals meant the session was back under way a couple of minutes later, but several drivers' super-soft tyre runs were disrupted as a result.

With just over 10 minutes remaining, the field turned its attention to qualifying-simulations on the super-soft tyres.

Hamilton was one of a number of drivers who complained about a lack of grip, with his team informing him that his tyre temperatures were a little high, and he was unable to improve on his earlier time.

And though Rosberg made a slight improvement and got ahead of Hamilton, it wasn't enough to beat Vettel, who hooked up three impressive sectors to finish top of the pile.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was fourth quickest, nearly a second off the pace, with Carlos Sainz Jr continuing Toro Rosso's good form this weekend with fifth.

Raikkonen was sixth quickest, having been unable to return to the track after his crash, ahead of Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat and McLaren's Jenson Button.

Max Verstappen, who has been impressive so far considering he had not raced in Monaco before this weekend, briefly went fourth quickest on the super-softs.

But next time around, he clipped the barrier at the final corner and ultimately finished ninth, with Lotus's Romain Grosjean completing the top 10.

Force India's Sergio Perez was 11th, ahead of the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado, Nico Hulkenberg in the second Force India and McLaren's Fernando Alonso.

Williams, currently third in the constructors' championship, never challenged the top of the timesheets with Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa down in 15th and 16th respectively, two seconds off the pace.

The Saubers were fastest in the speed trap but struggled for overall pace. Felipe Nasr was 17th and Marcus Ericsson, who got his braking wrong at Ste Devote and went down the escape road, 18th.

Will Stevens was 4.950s off the pace in the Manor-run Marussia in 19th but finished more than a second clear of team-mate Roberto Merhi.