Red Bull still dominant in final practice

Sebastian Vettel led the way with a 0.704-second margin over team-mate Mark Webber.

The Australian had usurped McLaren's Lewis Hamilton as the pacesetter halfway through the hour, but while Vettel made big gains on soft tyres at the end, Webber's earlier benchmark remained his best time. He improved in individual sectors, but did not manage to put a full lap together.

McLaren ended up third and fourth with Hamilton and Jenson Button, as Michael Schumacher continued his promising form by taking fifth for Mercedes.

The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were back in sixth and eighth, sandwiching Mercedes' Nico Rosberg.

Adrian Sutil hung on to 10th place behind Robert Kubica (Renault), despite coming to a halt at the side of the track with five minutes left when his Force India suddenly lost power.

There was one red flag stoppage 20 minutes in, when both Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi and Renault's Vitaly Petrov had separate incidents in quick succession at Turn 4.

While the Sauber spun harmlessly into the gravel, the Renault snapped violently left as it braked and clattered down the tyre wall, damaging both ends.

The marshals' efforts to clear water from the kerbing at the corner during the subsequent eight-minute yellow hinted at why both drivers might have been caught out.

Lotus had a one-two in the unofficial class for new teams, with Jarno Trulli fractionally ahead of Heikki Kovalainen, and both just over 4s off the outright pace. Hispania's Bruno Senna was solidly last having been stranded in the garage with a leak on his car for much of the hour.


Pos  Driver         Team                   Time              Laps
 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:20.528            15
 2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:21.232  + 0.704   11
 3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:21.348  + 0.820   14
 4.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:21.376  + 0.848   16
 5.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:21.583  + 1.055   14
 6.  Massa          Ferrari                1:21.749  + 1.221   16
 7.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:22.013  + 1.485   14
 8.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:22.091  + 1.563   15
 9.  Kubica         Renault                1:22.242  + 1.714   20
10.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:22.377  + 1.849   12
11.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:22.400  + 1.872   18
12.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:22.412  + 1.884   11
13.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:22.527  + 1.999   20
14.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:22.634  + 2.106   16
15.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:22.926  + 2.398   20
16.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:22.953  + 2.425   16
17.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:23.597  + 3.069   12
18.  Petrov         Renault                1:23.896  + 3.368    5
19.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:24.610  + 4.082   14
20.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:24.745  + 4.217   11
21.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:25.722  + 5.194   15
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:25.855  + 5.327   14
23.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth           1:26.611  + 6.083   18
24.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:30.246  + 9.718    6

All Timing Unofficial