Kimi Antonelli laid down an ominous marker ahead of qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix after setting the pace in final practice.
Antonelli, who leads George Russell by 66 points in the world championship with eight scheduled rounds left, saw off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.278 seconds at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit.
Verstappen’s team-mate Isack Hadjar took third, half-a-second back, with Russell only fourth and six-tenths off the pace of his Mercedes team-mate.
Charles Leclerc finished fifth and was fractionally faster than Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who was a place back in sixth.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were seventh and eighth respectively for McLaren.
Qualifying for Sunday’s re-arranged Bahrain round – which is taking place in Malaysia because of the conflict in the Middle East – takes place at 16:00 local time (09:00am BST).
