Red Bull and Mercedes traded fastest times throughout the final practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but the world champions ended the session on top.
Sebastian Vettel fell short of his quickest lap from yesterday but his best time of 1’41.349 was still better than anyone else could manage in the final hour.
Mark Webber’s final effort left him two tenths of a second away from his team mate and less than a hundredth of a second faster than Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes/
Romain Grosjean was the quickest of the two Lotus drivers in fifth place behind Nico Rosberg. Jenson Button put McLaren in fifth as Sergio Perez’s running was limited due to blistering on his tyres.
Both Sauber drivers made it into the top ten, Nico Hulkenberg ahead of Esteban Gutierrez, following by Kimi Raikkonen and Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso.
But for the second time this weekend neither Ferrari appeared in the top ten. Fernando Alonso was 11th, over a second slower than Vettel.
Jules Bianchi damaged his Marussia with a spin at turn one 15 minutes from the end of the session. The MR02 sustained front and rear damage when he hit the barriers after losing control of his car.
Combined practice times
| Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’44.499 | 1’41.335 | 1’41.349 | +0.014 | 72 |
| 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’44.712 | 1’41.490 | 1’41.571 | +0.081 | 69 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’44.433 | 1’41.690 | 1’41.580 | -0.11 | 78 |
| 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’44.741 | 1’41.758 | 1’41.721 | -0.037 | 84 |
| 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus-Renault | 1’44.929 | 1’41.726 | 1’42.387 | +0.661 | 83 |
| 6 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1’44.241 | 1’42.607 | 1’41.832 | -0.775 | 58 |
| 7 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1’45.099 | 1’42.010 | 1’41.956 | -0.054 | 70 |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | McLaren | 1’45.331 | 1’42.006 | 1’43.142 | +1.136 | 71 |
| 9 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’45.378 | 1’42.324 | 1’42.055 | -0.269 | 83 |
| 10 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’45.440 | 1’42.171 | 1’42.516 | +0.345 | 64 |
| 11 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’46.068 | 1’42.509 | 1’42.282 | -0.227 | 76 |
| 12 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’46.124 | 1’42.440 | 1’42.702 | +0.262 | 70 |
| 13 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’46.114 | 1’43.271 | 1’42.457 | -0.814 | 79 |
| 14 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’45.040 | 1’42.806 | 1’42.681 | -0.125 | 70 |
| 15 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1’45.823 | 1’43.565 | 1’42.698 | -0.867 | 77 |
| 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’46.126 | 1’43.152 | 1’42.727 | -0.425 | 68 |
| 17 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1’45.150 | 1’42.952 | 1’42.798 | -0.154 | 78 |
| 18 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’42.998 | 1’42.989 | -0.009 | 49 | |
| 19 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham-Renault | 1’44.138 | 1’44.472 | +0.334 | 55 | |
| 20 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’47.723 | 1’44.459 | 1’47.506 | +3.047 | 73 |
| 21 | Charles Pic | Caterham-Renault | 1’47.600 | 1’44.525 | 1’44.728 | +0.203 | 81 |
| 22 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’45.565 | 1’45.621 | +0.056 | 47 | |
| 23 | James Calado | Force India-Mercedes | 1’45.924 | 20 | |||
| 24 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1’47.670 | 22 | |||
| 25 | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’49.565 | 22 |
2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
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- 2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend in Tweets
Image ?é?® Red Bull/Getty
Stretch (@stretch)
2nd November 2013, 11:15
I didn’t watch it but why weren’t RB noticeably faster than yesterday? Sandbagging or something else? I would have thought more rubber on track, track probably warmer than FP2, dialing into qualy etc would mean faster lap times…
Malik (@)
2nd November 2013, 11:28
Formula 1 drivers have been warned that they risk having qualifying times disallowed at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix if they abuse track limits at the final corner.
It is going to be very interesting qualifying to watch :)
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
2nd November 2013, 12:10
FP3 times are interesting:
Sauber-Ferrari > Toro Rosso-Ferrari > Ferrari-Ferrari
When did this happen last?