Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.
He produced a lap of 1’23.168 to beat Pastor Maldonado to the fastest time of the session.
Lewis Hamilton looked on course for a quick time but had to back off when he caught Kimi Raikkonen and Narain Karthikeyan at the chicane.
The Saubers also looked quick during the session. Sergio Perez led the early running on hard tyres, setting a 1’24.554 in his Sauber.
His time was beaten by Nico Rosberg shortly after the halfway point in the session, the Mercedes driver one of the first to use the soft tyres, lapping in 1’24.070. He was beaten first by the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne, and then Perez returned to the top of the times with a 1’23.742.
Perez’s time was eventually beaten by team mate Kamui Kobayashi before Maldonado took over at the top in the final minutes.
Mark Webber was fourth-fastest for Red Bull ahead of Perez and Fernando Alonso, the Ferrari driver 0.639s off the pace in the revised Ferrari.
Vergne, Jenson Button, Raikkonen and Nico Rosberg completed the top ten, which contained cars from eight different teams.
Romain Grosjean hit trouble early in the session when he stopped with a loss of fuel pressure at La Caixa. The Lotus was returned to the garage with 20 minutes of the session remaining.
Spanish Grand Prix combined practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’24.808 | 1’23.563 | 1’23.168 | -0.395 | 69 |
2 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1’26.297 | 1’24.468 | 1’23.336 | -1.132 | 77 |
3 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’24.912 | 1’24.214 | 1’23.350 | -0.864 | 88 |
4 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’24.996 | 1’23.399 | 1’23.909 | +0.51 | 75 |
5 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’25.539 | 1’24.065 | 1’23.578 | -0.487 | 73 |
6 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’25.918 | 1’24.422 | 1’23.742 | -0.68 | 73 |
7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’25.607 | 1’23.771 | 1’24.070 | +0.299 | 85 |
8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’24.430 | 1’24.600 | 1’23.807 | -0.623 | 68 |
9 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’25.367 | 1’24.733 | 1’23.833 | -0.9 | 70 |
10 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’25.252 | 1’23.909 | 1’24.778 | +0.869 | 67 |
11 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus-Renault | 1’25.285 | 1’23.918 | 1’23.936 | +0.018 | 77 |
12 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1’25.217 | 1’23.964 | 55 | ||
13 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’25.187 | 1’24.080 | 1’24.825 | +0.745 | 68 |
14 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’25.433 | 1’24.418 | 1’24.179 | -0.239 | 72 |
15 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’25.339 | 1’24.365 | 1’24.323 | -0.042 | 63 |
16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’26.226 | 1’24.769 | 1’24.331 | -0.438 | 76 |
17 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 1’25.047 | 1’24.409 | -0.638 | 60 | |
18 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’24.688 | 1’24.599 | -0.089 | 45 | |
19 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1’25.120 | ||||
20 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1’27.475 | 1’26.740 | 1’25.911 | -0.829 | 75 |
21 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1’26.296 | 1’26.587 | +0.291 | 56 | |
22 | Jules Bianchi | Force India-Mercedes | 1’26.630 | ||||
23 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’28.267 | 1’27.314 | 1’27.689 | +0.375 | 64 |
24 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’28.633 | 1’27.664 | 1’27.469 | -0.195 | 70 |
25 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1’28.207 | 26 | |||
26 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 1’29.107 | 1’28.235 | 1’28.373 | +0.138 | 58 |
27 | Alexander Rossi | Caterham-Renault | 1’28.448 | ||||
28 | Dani Clos | HRT-Cosworth | 1’31.618 |
2012 Spanish Grand Prix
- Maldonado voted Spanish GP Driver of the Weekend
- Spanish Grand Prix gets highest rating for five years
- F1 fans’ videos from the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix
- Top ten pictures from the Spanish Grand Prix
- Vote for your Spanish GP Driver of the Weekend
Image © Red Bull/Getty images
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
12th May 2012, 11:12
Well, that just makes qualifying and the race even harder to predict.
Not that I’m complaining.
Ken (@myxomatosis)
12th May 2012, 11:15
I’m pretty certain that Hamilton’s first timed lap would have been the fastest of all if it weren’t for the traffic hold up.
S1 – Vettel – 23.0
– Hamilton – 22.9
S2 – Vettel – 31.3
– Hamilton – 31.3
S3 – Vettel – 28.7
– Hamilton – 29.2
All that Hamilton needed to do was to match Vettel’s S3 time and he would have been fastest.
Brownerboy (@brownerboy)
12th May 2012, 11:18
He probably would have been if he didn’t have the gurken in the HRT who was out for a sunday drive infront of him! loln
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
12th May 2012, 11:19
Hard to say that knowing that in the first 2 sectors, it was only a tenth that separated them. Anyways, it would have been close nonetheless
Ken (@myxomatosis)
12th May 2012, 11:22
Here are the complete lap and sector times for those interested. http://s17.postimage.org/3vflztkgf/Screenshot.png
Enigma (@enigma)
12th May 2012, 11:25
I think the data isn’t precise enough for us to know that – for all we know, Vettel might’ve been 0.001s slower in S1 and half a tenth up in S2.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th May 2012, 11:30
@myxomatosis
Hamilton’s best sector times were 22.977, 31.378 and 29.289, giving an ‘ultimate lap’ time of 1’23.644, 0.5s off the fastest time.
He was 15th-fastest in the final sector, 0.6s off the quickest time, so much like with Grosjean yesterday we can only speculate exactly how much time he lost but he would have been in the ballpark for fastest time.
And, of course, we have no idea how quick Grosjean would have been in this session…
Ken (@myxomatosis)
12th May 2012, 11:39
Quite right, he would have been in the ballpark for sure. And with the Williams and Saubers mixing it up and the customary one-lap pace of the Mercedes I think we’re in for a cracking qualifying.
Jake (@jleigh)
12th May 2012, 11:45
@keithcollantine So that last sector time was on hard tyres or a later lap on the softs? Also, what were Vettel’s precise times for each sector?
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
12th May 2012, 11:16
We are in for an epic qualifying
cg22me (@cg22me)
12th May 2012, 11:29
Got to admit… I’m really scared! In a good way :P
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
12th May 2012, 11:26
Top 10 separated by 1s? Nice. Such variation across the field this year. It’s hard to look at one single FP session and draw conclusions but you start to notice trends a few races in. Things are still wildly unpredictable.
Eggry (@eggry)
12th May 2012, 11:33
What is this? I can’t expect anything!
Sean (@spaceman1861)
12th May 2012, 11:53
You can expect a good show :D
Eggry (@eggry)
12th May 2012, 15:23
Indeed!
timi (@timi)
12th May 2012, 11:34
Well wow! Very very happy the Williams is looking pretty nifty around this track. It’s never nice to see a team, with so much great racing history, do as badly as they did last year. But it seems they’ve really buckled down and built pretty good car.
I would love for Q3 to be only RBR, Ferrari, Mclaren, Lotus and Williams. Talk about F1 legacy!!
JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
12th May 2012, 12:07
I think Nick Fry would disagree with your list @timi
timi (@timi)
12th May 2012, 12:10
WOW!! How on earth did I miss out the mighty Silver Arrows?!
Hmm I would replace RBR with Mercedes then :)
Younger Hamii (@younger-hamii)
12th May 2012, 11:37
FP3 just demonstrated how much the tyres are going to have an influence on the grid for tomorrow’s race & a true, meaningful test for a driver – to extract the most of the tyres on that one lap. A midfield runner may well be starting on the front row for the race – So unpredictable. Looking forward to quali!
Jake (@jleigh)
12th May 2012, 11:51
Apparently Hamilton has been called to the stewards for impeding MS. Strange for a practice session
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th May 2012, 11:58
@jleigh
Yup: http://twitter.com/ianparkesf1/statuses/201262838289932288
Jake (@jleigh)
12th May 2012, 12:00
seems utterly rediculous to me. Especially considering what happened to Lewis himself, plus the fact it’s only practice
Younger Hamii (@younger-hamii)
12th May 2012, 12:03
Just don’t understand the psychology that goes on inside some of the Stewards’ heads at times, their mindsets just seem so appalling
cg22me (@cg22me)
12th May 2012, 12:55
Even if he doesn’t get a penalty, his confidence may still be slightly shot for qualifying today, unfortunately.
How silly.
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
12th May 2012, 12:08
Seems like Massa is in for some trouble in Q1. He will be slow as usual and then slower cars will come out on softs thus forcing Massa (as well as a few others) to use up their softer tires.
I won’t be surprised if we see a surprise elimination in Q1
Ilanin (@ilanin)
12th May 2012, 12:35
But if you won’t be surprised, how can it be a surprise elimination?
Eric Morman (@lethalnz)
12th May 2012, 12:26
it is now a Lotto as to who can get the best outa their tires.
certainly makes for a great spectacle, but hard if your supporting one particular team/driver over others,
so close are the lower teams to the top 4 that now you could even choose one of them to win.
looking forward to a Fantastic Race.