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Webber quickest in final China practice

Australian Mark Webber put Red Bull on top of the times in final practice for the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday

The Red Bull driver set a best time of 1m35.323s to outpace yesterday's pace-setter Lewis Hamilton by over two tenths of a second ahead of this afternoon's qualifying.

Webber, however, was unable to match the time set by Hamilton in yesterday's second practice, the Briton's best still a tenth quicker.

Malaysian Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel was third fastest in the second Red Bull, the German just edging world champion Jenson Button as McLaren and Red Bull set what looks to be a thrilling battle for pole.

Fernando Alonso completed the top five in the Ferrari, but the Spaniard was already half a second off the pace set by Webber.

Team-mate Felipe Massa, meanwhile, had a more difficult morning and finished down in ninth after having to be pushed out of the pits for his final run.

Practice was red-flagged with some 17 minutes to go after Renault's Vitaly Petrov crashed at the start of the main straight, the F1 rookie going wide onto the AstroTurf and losing control of his car, impacting against the barriers and heavily damaging the front end of his Renault.

Although he was unhurt, the race director decided to stop practice in order for the debris to be cleared. The action was restarted with 10 minutes left on the clock.

The session had a quiet start, after all drivers returned to the pits for several minutes following their installation laps. Ten minutes into the hour-long session, Webber was only man not to have left the pits, the Australian finally jumping onto the track after over 15 minutes of the session were gone.

Petrov was the first driver to complete a timed lap after over 14 minutes, the Russian setting a 1m44.2s that was bettered by Virgin's Timo Glock moments later.

Championship leader Massa, and then team-mate Alonso, took to the top as the main contenders began their work some 20 minutes in, with Hamilton then outpacing the Ferrari duo before Webber set a 1m36.3s to put Red Bull at the head of the times.

Hamilton, quickest yesterday, was the only man to break into the 1:35s before the half-hour mark, with a lap that was around half a second slower than his Friday time. Webber then set his best time of the weekend to get within three tenths of the McLaren driver into second place.

There were no changes at the top of the times until the final rush on soft tyres began after the red flag, when Alonso moved into second before being demoted to fourth as the Red Bulls went quickest, with Webber just edging Vettel before going even quicker minutes later.

The session was mainly incident-free apart from Petrov's accident.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time              Laps
 1.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault       1:35.323            16 
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes       1:35.564  + 0.241   12 
 3.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault       1:35.691  + 0.368   14 
 4.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes       1:35.747  + 0.424   14 
 5.  Alonso        Ferrari                1:35.857  + 0.534   13 
 6.  Rosberg       Mercedes               1:35.913  + 0.590   12 
 7.  Schumacher    Mercedes               1:36.262  + 0.939   10 
 8.  Kubica        Renault                1:36.343  + 1.020   16 
 9.  Massa         Ferrari                1:36.416  + 1.093   11 
10.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari         1:36.634  + 1.311   16 
11.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:36.879  + 1.556   17 
12.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes   1:37.031  + 1.708   16 
13.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:37.192  + 1.869   18 
14.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes   1:37.240  + 1.917   18 
15.  Petrov        Renault                1:37.339  + 2.016   13 
16.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth      1:37.585  + 2.262   13 
17.  de la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari         1:37.664  + 2.341   19 
18.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth      1:37.784  + 2.461   14 
19.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth        1:39.579  + 4.256   15 
20.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth         1:39.616  + 4.293   17 
21.  di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth        1:39.749  + 4.426   13 
22.  Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth         1:39.776  + 4.453   16 
23.  Senna         HRT-Cosworth           1:40.316  + 4.993   19 
24.  Chandhok      HRT-Cosworth           1:41.141  + 5.818   18 

All Timing Unofficial

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