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Nico Rosberg quickest for Mercedes again in final Bahrain Grand Prix practice

Nico Rosberg emphasised his and Mercedes' potential in Bahrain by going quickest in a second consecutive practice session on Saturday morning at Sakhir

The German, fresh from his maiden pole and victory in China a week ago, lapped in 1m33.254s to beat the two Red Bulls to the fastest time in final practice.

The McLarens were fourth and sixth, sandwiching the second Mercedes of Michael Schumacher.

When the serious running commenced after a quiet start, it was Lotus that held a one-two for some time, before Sebastian Vettel put his Red Bull on top just after the session's halfway point.

But then Mercedes showed its pace, moving onto soft tyres and taking first Schumacher, then Rosberg to the front. The Shanghai winner's 1m33.254s put him half a second clear of his team-mate, and was as fast as he needed to go to end the morning on top.

Vettel got within 0.147 seconds in the final moments, but had to settle for second, just ahead of team-mate Mark Webber.

Lewis Hamilton was the top McLaren runner in fourth, pushing Schumacher back to fifth place, followed by the second McLaren of Jenson Button.

Lotus ended up seventh and ninth with Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, the pair split by the resurgent Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo. Fernando Alonso completed the top 10 for Ferrari.

After missing Friday's second practice session, Force India returned and went 15th (Paul di Resta) and 19th quickest (Nico Hulkenberg).

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m33.254s            14
 2.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m33.401s  + 0.147s  14
 3.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m33.663s  + 0.409s  15
 4.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m33.782s  + 0.528s  16
 5.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m33.796s  + 0.542s  16
 6.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m33.899s  + 0.645s  14
 7.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault         1m33.976s  + 0.722s  14
 8.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m34.197s  + 0.943s  14
 9.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault         1m34.401s  + 1.147s  16
10.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m34.895s  + 1.641s  11
11.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault      1m34.918s  + 1.664s  12
12.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m34.977s  + 1.723s  12
13.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m35.067s  + 1.813s  17
14.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m35.128s  + 1.874s  14
15.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m35.336s  + 2.082s  22
16.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m35.536s  + 2.282s  15
17.  Bruno Senna         Williams-Renault      1m35.623s  + 2.369s  16
18.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault      1m35.694s  + 2.440s  19
19.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  1m35.773s  + 2.519s  21
20.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault      1m36.532s  + 3.278s  17
21.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth     1m37.267s  + 4.013s  18
22.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth     1m37.654s  + 4.400s  18
23.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth          1m38.973s  + 5.719s  11
24.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth          1m39.221s  + 5.967s  9

All timing unofficial

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