Lewis Hamilton completed a McLaren hat-trick in practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Hamilton beat Sebastian Vettel’s 2010 pole position time by almost half a second in the final hour of practice ahead of qualifying.
The McLaren drivers were quickest to begin with as the Red Bull pair delayed their start to the session.
Once the RB7 drivers came out they were closely-matched on pace with the McLaren duo, Sebastian Vettel briefly taking over at the top of the times.
Felipe Massa was one of the first drivers to switch to soft tyres and he headed the times initially, followed by Adrian Sutil and Nico Rosberg.
The Red Bull drivers were the next to show their hand, Webber leading Vettel with a lap of 1’39.668. But Hamilton had more in hand, and beat Webber’s time by half a second to return to the top of the times.
Webber improved to a 1’39.457 on his next effort, despite having to dodge around his team mate in the third sector.
Hamilton found even more time with his last run, setting a 1’38.976 which both Red Bulls fell short of by more than four-tenths of a second on their subsequent runs.
Jarno Trulli failed to set a time due to a gearbox problem on his Lotus.
Combined practice times
| Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Sat/Fri | Laps |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’40.403 | 1’39.586 | 1’38.976 | -0.61 | 75 |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’40.755 | 1’40.132 | 1’39.403 | -0.729 | 71 |
| 3 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’40.389 | 1’40.104 | 1’39.427 | -0.677 | 79 |
| 4 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’40.263 | 1’39.785 | 1’39.429 | -0.356 | 66 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’40.801 | 1’39.971 | 1’39.661 | -0.31 | 61 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’41.260 | 1’39.980 | 1’40.183 | +0.203 | 68 |
| 7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’42.130 | 1’44.265 | 1’40.135 | -1.995 | 86 |
| 8 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’41.340 | 1’40.951 | 1’40.429 | -0.522 | 78 |
| 9 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’42.151 | 1’41.021 | 1’40.511 | -0.51 | 84 |
| 10 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’43.389 | 1’40.553 | 1’40.938 | +0.385 | 76 |
| 11 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’44.484 | 1’41.490 | 1’41.527 | +0.037 | 73 |
| 12 | Bruno Senna | Renault | 1’42.369 | 1’41.509 | -0.86 | 57 | |
| 13 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’44.412 | 1’41.565 | 1’41.566 | +0.001 | 82 |
| 14 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1’43.118 | 1’41.947 | 1’41.594 | -0.353 | 62 |
| 15 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’41.680 | 1’41.622 | -0.058 | 51 | |
| 16 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’42.377 | 1’41.983 | 1’41.855 | -0.128 | 78 |
| 17 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 1’43.255 | 1’42.910 | 1’42.025 | -0.885 | 82 |
| 18 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’42.633 | 26 | |||
| 19 | Romain Grosjean | Renault | 1’42.685 | 29 | |||
| 20 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1’42.798 | 1’43.861 | +1.063 | 43 | |
| 21 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1’44.565 | 1’43.562 | 1’43.409 | -0.153 | 85 |
| 22 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Renault | 1’44.898 | 1’44.050 | 64 | ||
| 23 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’48.024 | 1’45.486 | 1’45.262 | -0.224 | 77 |
| 24 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 1’46.385 | 1’46.249 | 1’45.302 | -0.947 | 68 |
| 25 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’46.142 | 1’45.509 | -0.633 | 54 | |
| 26 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT-Cosworth | 1’46.532 | 1’46.328 | 1’45.732 | -0.596 | 82 |
| 27 | Robert Wickens | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’48.551 | 23 |
2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Image © McLaren
Regan Schreiber (@regsf1fan)
12th November 2011, 11:11
Brilliant. Go Hamilton go! Finish strong so that you can start even stronger next year!
Younger Hamii (@younger-hamii)
12th November 2011, 11:14
I really feel strongly that Hamilton will be on Pole but i could never rule out Vettel,I’ve said a lot now lol.I think Lewis just has those extra 2-4 tenths in the middle & final sectors where his Driving style comes into play.
Force India & Mercedes are running well as well,Maybe they can mix in with Massa,who we know most likely is going to be out-qualified by Fernando by a considerable margin.
Todfod (@todfod)
12th November 2011, 11:18
Argh! Its crunch time in the prediction championship, and this FP3 result makes the prediction for this weekend’s race incredibly difficult.
My heart tells me Hamilton pole to win, but my mind tells me Vettel pole to win.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
12th November 2011, 12:32
@Todford Certainly does make predictions a bit of a nightmare!
BasCB (@bascb)
12th November 2011, 11:25
All cars inside 107% percent of Hamilton’s time as well, so I guess its a bit closer here.
The mercedes cars were the quickest through the second sector, with the big straights, seems like anyone getting stuck behind either of those will have a hard time passing on track during the race.
Must say, the Mclaren cars look really good here, better than the RBR cars. But its hard to bet against Vettel pulling out another 3-5 tenths in the nick of time to get pole by a few hundreds. Hm, might be good
Todfod (@todfod)
12th November 2011, 11:31
My bet is on Felipe getting stuck behind a Mercedes for an entire race
bosyber (@bosyber)
12th November 2011, 11:51
Hard to decide for me too. I now predicted HAM for pole, but having 2nd thoughts about it. Previously when Vettel binned it on Friday, looked disgruntled a bit during rest of the day, and Saturday morning, by Q3 he had it figured out well enough to just pull out those few tenths needed for pole. I can see him do that again.
W-K (@w-k)
12th November 2011, 11:34
Did notice that MSC is still cutting the corner at 8/9, just before the second DRS detection line.
bosyber (@bosyber)
12th November 2011, 11:45
Noticed at the end of the practice session on BBC 5live, it was mentioned that the FIA will put a marshal at that corner, specifically to make sure drivers don’t do that for the rest of the weekend.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
12th November 2011, 11:53
He only did it one. He over-cooked it going into the switchback
Bookoi (@bookoi)
12th November 2011, 11:37
Certainly looks like Lewis has got his head back in the right place.
A big result before the end of the year will make a big difference to his 2012 preparations and it looks like he could well get it this weekend. Looking forward to qualifying!
guido (@guidof1)
12th November 2011, 11:55
it is a good opportunity for lewis to get a pole, then hopefully tomorrow stay out of trouble and achieve a strong result that will give him a nice boost.
the trully great ones are always back and i believe he will come back
Fixy (@)
12th November 2011, 16:25
Once again, when McLaren can beat Red Bull it’s Hamilton that beats them. He’s not having such a bad season.