Sebastian Vettel halted Lewis Hamilton's charge at the Canadian GP by topping the timesheets in Practice Three as little separated Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes.
Vettel set the pace with a 1:13.919 but with just 0.6s between him and Daniel Ricciardo in sixth, a competitive qualifying session looks to be on the cards.
Max Verstappen was the German's closest challenger a few tenths back with Nico Rosberg just behind, while Kimi Raikkonen and Hamilton were split by two thousandths of a second.
Mercedes may have been sandbagging as they approach qualifying, underway at 6pm, but Hamilton had been chasing a hat-trick of fastest times in practice.
However, Vettel's benchmark lap was the quickest time of the weekend so far and denied the world champion.
"It's pretty close between three teams," Paddy Lowe told Sky Sports F1. " It should be an exciting qualifying."
With rain starting to fall in Montreal many drivers started to lose control, and the session was brought to an early conclusion after Kevin Magnussen's heavy shunt at Turn Seven.
In a peculiar crash, the Renault seemed to simply snap as the Dane went to put on the power on a warm-up lap. Magnussen reported that he was "ok" over team radio, but with 10 minutes remaining and plenty of debris on track there was to be no more running in P3.
The red flags also denied Red Bull the chance to truly test out the ultrasoft tyre like their rivals, having set their fastest laps on the supersoft.
Verstappen's pace was promising as he stayed ahead of the Mercedes early on, with Hamilton and Rosberg both reporting damage to their W07s after struggling at the final chicane.
Practice Three timesheet
1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:13.919
2. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 1:14.158
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:14.316
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:14.332
5. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:14.334
6. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:14.487
7. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:14.655
8. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:14.801
9. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1:14.886
10. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:14.890
11. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:14.918
12. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:14.985
13. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:15.023
14. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1:15.199
15. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, 1:15.444
16. Jolyon Palmer, Renault,, 1:15.656
17. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 1:15.704
18. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:16.078
19. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1:16.085
20. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1:16.326
21. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, 1:16.622
22. Rio Haryanto, Manor, 1:16.901