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YAS MARINA, Abu Dhabi -- Sebastian Vettel claimed top spot in final practice ahead of Red Bull and the Mercedes title contenders, in a session which saw the top five covered by 0. Jimmy Johnson Jersey .4s.Vettel was happy with the performance of his car on Friday and carried that into the final 60 minutes of track time before qualifying, setting a 1:40.775 to lead the session. Red Bulls Max Verstappen finished second to split Vettel and Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen, while title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were marginally behind in fourth and fifth, though neither emerged for a final run at the end of the session when most cars gained time.?As with FP1, FP3 can be a misleading session as it is held in conditions not representative of qualifying or the race as they take place in the heat of the early afternoon. The times hint at a closer qualifying session, though Mercedes will take comfort from the strong position they had at the end of FP2 on Friday evening.Hamilton and Rosberg, the two men going for the title this weekend, were split by just under 0.1s in what proves to be a tight battle in the most important qualifying session of the season so far. The session was not plain sailing for the world champions, with Hamilton raising fears of another engine problem early on when complaining of a loss of power and crawling back to the garage. However, Mercedes later confirmed the issue had just been a de-rate of the engine.Behind the top five, Daniel Ricciardo finished a distant sixth for Red Bull, 0.7s shy of Rosberg in fifth. Force India drivers Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg set near-identical times in their final FP3 as teammates, ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Gutierrez.As with FP2, Fernando Alonso had to settle for 11th just outside of the points, though the Spaniard has admitted he will not be upset to miss Q3 this evening as McLaren focuses on points and 2017. Jolyon Palmer split Alonso and Jenson Button in the other McLaren, while Felipe Massas final FP3 session finished in 14th position. Romain Grosjean finished 15th for Haas ahead of Kevin Magnussen and an impressive Pascal Wehrlein.Carlos Sainz was 18th for Toro Rosso as the team looked to make up for lost time from its back-to-back punctures on Friday, though he had a spin at Turn 18 just before the half-hour mark and accumulated just 10 laps. Felipe Nasr and Esteban Ocon took the places between Sainz and the other Toro Rosso, Daniil Kvyat, in 21st. Marcus Ericsson rounded off the order in 22nd, 3.4s down on Vettels benchmark time. Jim Lee Hunt Jersey . Nine days before the opening ceremony, organizing committee chief Dmitry Chernyshenko said Wednesday that Sochi is "fully ready" and will deliver safe, friendly and well-run games that defy the grim reports that have overshadowed preparations. Steve DeBerg Jersey .Y. - Detroit goaltender Jonas Gustavsson has earned NHL first star of the week honours after winning in his first three appearances of the season. http:///...sey-large-1441f.html . -- Bobby Ryan helped the U. TAMPA, Fla. -- Frank Martins uneasiness about how No. 16 South Carolina might respond to its first loss of the season was unfounded.PJ Dozier and Duane Notice assured that, stepping up in the absence of leading scorer Sindarius Thornwell to help the Gamecocks (9-1) shrug off cold shooting and pull away to a 77-66 victory over South Florida on Saturday.Dozier scored 11 of his 23 points in the closing minutes and Notice gave South Carolina a spark by contributing 14 of his 15 points after halftime to help the Gamecocks bounce back from last Mondays 67-64 loss to Seton Hall.It was my concern for this basketball team coming into this game, coming off our first loss, being so young, that some guys wouldnt handle it (well). Losing is an epidemic, and losing is not good. And young people dont know how to handle losing, Martin said.It was our first experience as a team to go through it. I think we kind of came out and played the first half like somebody took our dog. We didnt have our enthusiasm, the fight that weve played with every single day out, Martin added. But Im equally as pleased, I thought we played well in the second half as a basketball team. Different guys doing things. Obviously PJ continues to grow as a player here and do unbelievable things. But like I told him, its also his challenge.The Gamecocks (9-1) improved to 2-1 without Thornwell, who has been suspended indefinitely for violating athletic department policy.With Sind being out, we had only two seniors out on the floor. So as Coach said, were young. Were a young team and were just looking to grow, Dozier said.We came out first half a little sluggish. We make our offense out of our defense and wasnt doing that the first half, the 6-foot-6 sophomore guard added. We went into the locker room and Coach gave us that word that we needed and came out with the intensity we should have started with.Jahmal McMurray led USF (5-4) with 25 points. Malik Fitts had 12 points and Geno Thorpe finished with 11 points and nine rebounds for the Bulls, who led 37-31 at halftime.South Carolina began the second half with a 17-9 burst to take a 48-41 lead. Bruce Armstrong Jersey. Dozier and Notice keyed the initial surge and Dozier took over down the stretch, when the Gamecocks led by as many as 13.We got, maybe, a little bit complacent. Didnt come out with the fire that we had in the first half, McMurray said. The second half, we just have to ... come out with the same fire.THE BIG PICTURESouth Carolina, which has its highest ranking since being No. 14 in the final poll of the 1997-98 season, obviously misses Thornwell, who leads them in assists, as well as scoring and rebounding. With Notice missing the first eight shots he attempted, including six from 3-point range, the Gamecocks trailed at halftime for the first time this season.Not surprisingly, South Florida faded down the stretch. Luis Santos made a layup to trim South Carolinas lead to 64-61 with 7 minutes left, however the Bulls didnt score again from the field until Bo Zeiglers basket with 29 seconds left.FIRST BIG TESTSouth Carolina is only Power 5 opponent USF is scheduled to face this season. The Bulls fell to 0-4 against ranked opponents under coach Orlando Antigua and have dropped 20 consecutive games to Top 25 opponents since knocking off No. 15 Louisville on the road on Feb. 29, 2012.POLL IMPLICATIONSThe Gamecocks may lose some ground in the next AP poll, however, rebounding on the road -- albeit against an opponent thats had its share of problems against a weak schedule -- will likely keep the Gamecocks in the Top 25.UNIENDO LOS TOROSUSF designated Saturday as Uniendo Los Toros, which in English translates to Uniting The Bulls. The game featured two of three Hispanic-American head coaches in NCAA Division I in South Carolinas Martin and USFs Antigua. Miamis Jim Larranaga is the third. Early arrivals among the announced crowd of 2,489 at the Sun Dome received white T-shirts commemorating the occasion.UP NEXTSouth Carolina: Returns home to face intrastate rival Clemson on Wednesday.South Florida: Faces Northern Illinois at home on Tuesday.--- ' ' '