Ricciardo qualifying in doubt after FP3 shutdown

Daniel Ricciardo pulled up on-track to throw his participation in qualifying into doubt after Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari fought back in third free practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as the reigning world champion led the red cars in the top three, after Valtteri Bottas and the Red Bulls had dominated things on Fridays.

Ricciardo ground to a halt in the final minutes of FP3 at turn nine after his car lost power on the back straight.

The Australian has suffered a season-high eight DNFs in 2018, giving his final Red Bull season something of a miserable sheen.

Ricciardo's out of his car and waiting for a lift back to the pits #AbuDhabiGP ???????? #F1 pic.twitter.com/BVTYIW5a0k — Formula 1 (@F1) November 24, 2018

It was little surprise to see Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen improve as Ferrari turned up their engines.

Hamilton topped the timesheets with a 1:37.176 as he continues to impress on the back of securing a fifth world title.

Raikkonen was his closest competitor, two tenths off the pace, but the Finn faces a trip to the stewards ahead of qualifying, after baling out of a pitstop while in the pit-lane and crossing the white line.

Hamilton did similar in FP1 and earned a reprimand, so Raikkonen can expect similar.

Max Verstappen was fourth quickest, half a second away from Hamilton – a position that Red Bull may be happy to take from qualifying as they appear to hold an advantage in managing tyres compared to Ferrari and Mercedes.

Ricciardo wasn't the only driver to run into trouble, with Charles Leclerc destroying his Sauber's rear wing in an incident at turn 19, but he was able to re-emerge at the end of the session after some swift work from Sauber's mechanics.

VIDEO: Leclerc destroys rear wing in FP3 crash