Vettel dominates final practice session in India

2011 Indian GP third practice

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Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Buddh International Circuit, 2011

Sebastian Vettel was comfortably quickest in the Saturday morning practice session at Buddh International Circuit.

The Red Bull was fastest throughout most of the session, setting a time of 1’26.311 on the hard tyres, just over a tenth of a second quicker than his team mate.

He slipped from the top spot towards the end of the session as Felipe Massa and Jenson Button did their first runs on soft tyres.

But when Vettel put the quicker rubber on he returned to the top of the times with his customary last-lap effort. He was the only driver to lap the track in less than 85 seconds, setting a fastest time of 1’24.824.

Button was second ahead of Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton, followed by the two Ferraris.

Massa’s front wing was seen flexing from side to side at high speeds during the session, sending up sparks from the endplates. This ceased to happen after Ferrari switched wings on the car.

Paul di Resta was seventh-quickest for Force India with Nico Rosberg between himself and team mate Adrian Sutil. Sebastien Buemi completed the top ten.

The new track continued to catch drivers out and there were several more spins and dusty off-track moments throughout the session. However there was no repeat of yesterday’s crashes.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGap
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’24.82418
24Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’25.1910.36715
32Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’25.2030.37919
43Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’25.2880.46416
55Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’25.7840.96017
66Felipe MassaFerrari1’26.0581.23416
715Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’26.7851.96119
88Nico RosbergMercedes1’26.8732.04922
914Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’26.9582.13419
1018Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’27.1462.32220
117Michael SchumacherMercedes1’27.2172.39321
129Bruno SennaRenault1’27.2352.41120
1316Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’27.2622.43819
1410Vitaly PetrovRenault1’27.2802.45618
1519Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’27.3872.56320
1617Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’27.7492.92521
1712Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’27.7932.96917
1811Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’27.8753.05120
1921Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’29.3554.53121
2020Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’29.7504.92619
2124Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’30.6835.85923
2222Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1’30.9006.07625
2325Jerome D’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’32.8518.02719
2423Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’33.2468.42219

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Sat/FriLaps
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’27.4161’25.7941’24.824-0.9775
2Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’28.3941’26.7141’25.191-1.52366
3Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’27.4281’26.5001’25.203-1.29776
4Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’26.8361’26.4541’25.288-1.16664
5Felipe MassaFerrari1’28.6441’25.7061’26.058+0.35271
6Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’35.8991’25.9301’25.784-0.14655
7Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’29.7001’27.8531’26.785-1.06878
8Nico RosbergMercedes1’28.5421’31.0981’26.873-1.66989
9Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’28.7051’27.3161’26.958-0.35876
10Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’29.2191’27.8681’27.146-0.72279
11Michael SchumacherMercedes1’28.5311’31.8041’27.217-1.31472
12Bruno SennaRenault1’29.7991’27.4981’27.235-0.26376
13Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’29.3551’28.0501’27.262-0.78882
14Vitaly PetrovRenault1’29.7051’27.8901’27.280-0.6177
15Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’30.5661’28.5521’27.387-1.16570
16Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’30.1321’28.2891’27.749-0.5482
17Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’30.6691’28.7081’27.793-0.91563
18Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’30.3671’28.6911’27.875-0.81670
19Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’30.8181’29.3321’29.355+0.02382
20Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’30.2411’29.750-0.49160
21Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’32.7711’31.4691’30.683-0.78679
22Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1’34.1131’32.8241’30.900-1.92488
23Karun ChandhokLotus-Renault1’32.48724
24Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’35.7961’32.5931’32.851+0.25850
25Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’33.9281’32.7681’33.246+0.47879

2011 Indian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    9 comments on “Vettel dominates final practice session in India”

    1. looks like seb is on his way to pole position again. havent really worked out yet how badly traffic affected the top 6 drivers on their flying laps. still the red bulls have much more grip in the last 2 corners, i think

    2. Man the Ferrari front wings are sic. What is the story with them?

    3. It seems out of top 6, only ferrari drivers didn’t manage significant improvement from FP2 & Massa even slower than FP2. so are they hiding some thing or got wrong with set up as track is improving?

      1. Seems like the same problem with Team Lotus.

      2. I noticed that too. My guess would be fuel loads. But what for?

      3. I would think perhaps tyres? They’ve not exactly made life easy for Ferrari this year, apart from the odd race or 2 where the super-soft appeared.

    4. Love that lap from Di Resta….. best of the rest.

    5. These lap times are just crumbling away all the time. Wonder what times we will see in qualifying? I fully expect a bit of chaos with the track still being slippery.

    6. Massa’s returned to normal form… behind Alonso.

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