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Sebastian Vettel fastest in final Spanish Grand Prix practice

Sebastian Vettel denied Pastor Maldonado a shock timesheet-topping performance in the final seconds of the third practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona

Most of the hour had seen a variety of surprise underdog names taking turns on top, before reigning champions Vettel and Red Bull re-established the expecting order with the German's final lap.

It was Sauber's Sergio Perez who led the way for most of the morning, setting the quickest time of the first half hour on the harder tyres, then being swiftly usurped by first Nico Rosberg, then Jean-Eric Vergne as the Mercedes and Toro Rosso tried softs.

Once Perez was on softs too, he was swiftly back in front, lapping in 1m23.742s.

That held until the final two minutes, when his team-mate Kamui Kobayashi jumped to the top, followed by Red Bull's Mark Webber.

But before this pair could get to the pits, they were being usurped as Maldonado came through to put his Williams on top with a 1m23.336s.

The Venezuelan would not stay there, as with seconds left on the clock, Vettel edged him out by 0.168 seconds.

Maldonado, Kobayashi, Webber and Perez found themselves pushed back to second through fifth places, ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, Vergne, and fastest McLaren driver Jenson Button. The sister McLaren of Lewis Hamilton looked poised to grab first place on the Briton's soft tyre run, only to encounter heavy traffic in the middle of the chicane, leaving Hamilton an unrepresentative 16th.

Romain Grosjean did not complete any flying laps after a fuel pressure issue stranded his Lotus at Turn 10 early on, while Timo Glock was the other man to park trackside following an apparent issue at the final chicane in the closing minutes. The German stopped his Marussia just past the pit exit.

Pos  Driver                Team                   Time               Laps
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m23.168             13
 2.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m23.336s  + 0.168   19
 3.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m23.350s  + 0.182   19
 4.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m23.578s  + 0.410   16
 5.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m23.742s  + 0.574   22
 6.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m23.807s  + 0.639   15
 7.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m23.833s  + 0.665   14
 8.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m23.909s  + 0.741   13
 9.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m23.936s  + 0.768   16
10.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m24.070s  + 0.902   23
11.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m24.179s  + 1.011   16
12.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m24.323s  + 1.155   17
13.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m24.331s  + 1.163   15
14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault       1m24.409s  + 1.241   18
15.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m24.599s  + 1.431   15
16.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m24.778s  + 1.610   15
17.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m24.825s  + 1.657   17
18.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       1m25.911s  + 2.743   20
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       1m26.587s  + 3.419   20
20.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      1m27.469s  + 4.301   18
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      1m27.689s  + 4.521   16
22.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           1m28.207s  + 5.039   24
23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth           1m28.373s  + 5.205   13
24.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          no time               2 

All Timing Unofficial

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