Fernando Alonso was quickest in his Ferrari in final practice ahead of Sunday's season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
The double Formula 1 world champion recorded a lap time of one minute 54.099 seconds on Saturday, 0.269 quicker than the Mercedes of Germany's Nico Rosberg and 0.401 ahead of Red Bull's Australian Mark Webber on the Sakhir circuit.
Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher, returning to the sport with Mercedes at the age of 41, recorded the fourth quickest time.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was fifth, Felipe Massa was 0.640secs behind team-mate Alonso in sixth, with reigning world champion Jenson Button down in seventh in his McLaren, a second behind Alonso.
Lewis Hamilton suffered from a brake duct problem that limited him to just eight laps compared to the 16 of his competitors, and finished in 12th.
Virgin Racing suffered embarrassment when Timo Glock's front-left tyre worked loose.
Glock had earlier had success when he became the first driver for one of the new teams to breach the two-minute mark for the 6.299km track, clocking a time of one minute 59.245 seconds.
Indian Karun Chandhok failed to even get on the track with the new Hispania (HRT) team after the car suffered a further hydraulics problem.