Valtteri Bottas topped the final Friday of 2019 – leading a Mercedes AMG Petronas one-two – in spite of a clash with Romain Grosjean.
The Finn utilised his fresh Mercedes power unit that will rule him out for the Pole Position fight to top the session by over three tenths of a second from his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
However, while Bottas was on Friday’s usual long runs in preperation for the race he clashed with Grosjean.
Bottas lunged to pass the Frenchman into turn eleven, only to slam into the side of the Haas car.
Bottas returned to the circuit later in the session after some repairs and a red flag were brought out.
Charles Leclerc was third for Scuderia Ferrari, ahead of Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel as Ferrari and Red Bull seemed to be in close proximity in the pecking order.
Alex Albon rounded out the top six ahead of surprise package Romain Grosjean, who led the midfield.
Sergio Perez and the Toro Rosso duo rounded out the top ten, with Daniil Kvyat leading Pierre Gasly.
It was more two-by-two in eleventh and twelfth with the McLaren pairing taking their positions.
Carlos Sainz Jr. led Lando Norris ahead of Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnussen in the second Racing Point and Haas cars respectively.
Renault suffered a woeful session with Nico Hulkenberg outpacing Daniel Ricciardo in fifteenth and sixteenth, while Kimi Raikkonen led Antonio Giovinazzi in the troubled Alfa Romeo car.
ROKit Williams Racing‘s duo rounded out the order with George Russell leading Robert Kubica.
