Vettel heads Button in Saturday's final practice session
Sebastian Vettel also dominated the third and final practice session of the Chinese Grand Prix. Again it were the McLaren drivers who came closest to the speed of Red Bull with Lewis Hamilton in third, 0.405 seconds behind Button (+0.208).
Sebastian Vettel studying data
Due to KERS related issues Mark Webber drove five laps only and was almost two seconds adrift of his teammate. Red Bull have two hours at their disposal to sort the problem out for qualifying. It is possible that Red Bull decide to go without KERS, as they already did in Melbourne.Mercedes' speed on Friday afternoon does not seem to have been a flash in the pan after all. On Saturday morning Nico Rosberg was only 0.709 seconds behind Vettel in forth place, Schumacher was down in nineth (+1.173).
Ferrari might find it difficult to be on the front row for Sunday's race. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were about a second slower compared to Vettel.
McLaren is in good shape in Shanghai
The difference between the prime and the option tyre seems to be around a second, Vettel's fastest lap on the prime tyre was a 1:36.053.The slowest cars on Saturday morning were the two Hispanias, but the team will be happy that both drivers seem capable of staying within the 107 percent rule, which in practice three would have been a time of 1:41.616.
Saturday Practice - final results
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Pos.DriverNat.TeamTimeGapLaps 1Sebastian VettelGermanRed Bull1:34.96813 2Jenson ButtonBritishMcLaren1:35.176+0.20815 3Lewis HamiltonBritishMcLaren1:35.373+0.40514 4Nico RosbergGermanMercedes1:35.677+0.70918 5Fernando AlonsoSpanishFerrari1:35.818+0.85017 6Felipe MassaBrazilianFerrari1:35.971+1.00315 7Vitaly PetrovRussianLotus Renault1:36.098+1.13018 8Adrian SutilGermanForce India1:36.125+1.15715 9Michael SchumacherGermanMercedes1:36.141+1.17314 10Paul di RestaScottishForce India1:36.370+1.40218 11Nick HeidfeldGermanLotus Renault1:36.404+1.43616 12Kamui KobayashiJapaneseSauber1:36.582+1.61418 13Sergio PerezMexicanSauber1:36.596+1.62817 14Sebastien BuemiSwissToro Rosso1:36.717+1.74916 15Mark WebberAustralianRed Bull1:36.896+1.9285 16Jaime AlguersuariSpanishToro Rosso1:36.953+1.98514 17Rubens BarrichelloBrazilianWilliams1:37.007+2.03920 18Pastor MaldonadoVenezuelanWilliams1:37.304+2.33618 19Heikki KovalainenFinnishTeam Lotus1:38.176+3.20812 |
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20Jarno TrulliItalianTeam Lotus1:38.739+3.77112 21Timo GlockGermanVirgin1:39.938+4.97017 22Jerome D'AmbrosioBelgianVirgin1:39.998+5.03016 23Vitantonio LiuzziItalianHispania1:40.593+5.62517 24Narain KarthikeyanIndianHispania1:40.881+5.91318 |
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