Vettel goes quickest in final practice

It looked like McLaren's Lewis Hamilton would end the morning on top - despite a wild mid-session spin - as the Red Bulls both slipped up on their last runs.

But after exploring the Turn 8 run-off on his first flying lap at the end, Vettel regrouped and pulled a lap together on his next tour and managed to set a 1m27.086s - putting him nearly 0.3 seconds clear of the field.

Nico Rosberg jumped to second for Mercedes moments later, pushing Hamilton back to third.

Mark Webber was fourth at the end of an eventful morning that started when his Red Bull slowed to a crawl due to a throttle problem soon after leaving the pits for his first proper run. Having had an agonisingly slow lap of the track, he eventually made it back to the garage.

Just 12 minutes later, Webber rejoined in a healthy car and took no time at all to get up to second behind team-mate Vettel, who was quickest for most of the morning.

When they switched to soft tyres, Webber had trips over the run-off at Turns 1 and 4 before finally having a spectacular spin at Turn 8 on his last lap. He did not hit anything in any of the excursions and still ended up fourth.

Hamilton's mid-session problem was equally spectacular - as he ran wide halfway through Turn 8 and snapped into a spin. He held the McLaren in a high-speed sideways slide until it reached one of the very few patches of gravel trap at the Istanbul Park track, in which he was beached for a while before being extricated and allowed to return to the pits. The slide had shredded both rear tyres, but the McLaren eventually made it back with apparently little damage.

Robert Kubica was competitive all morning and took fifth for Renault, ahead of Fernando Alonso in the faster of the Ferraris, Mercedes' Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button (McLaren).

The most costly issue of the session was the hydraulic glitch that struck Adrian Sutil's Force India. The German's car was wheeled back into the garage without completing a flying lap and could not be repaired before the end of the hour.

Pos  Driver         Team                   Time              Laps
 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault         1:27.086            18
 2.  Rosberg        Mercedes                 1:27.359  + 0.273   16
 3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes         1:27.396  + 0.310   14
 4.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault         1:27.553  + 0.467   15
 5.  Kubica         Renault                  1:27.784  + 0.698   20
 6.  Alonso         Ferrari                  1:27.861  + 0.775   18
 7.  Schumacher     Mercedes                 1:27.879  + 0.793   16
 8.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes         1:27.963  + 0.877   17
 9.  Massa          Ferrari                  1:27.969  + 0.883   20
10.  Petrov         Renault                  1:28.344  + 1.258   18
11.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari       1:28.610  + 1.524   22
12.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari           1:28.652  + 1.566   20
13.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari       1:28.734  + 1.648   21
14.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari           1:29.036  + 1.950   20
15.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth        1:29.044  + 1.958   18
16.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes     1:29.211  + 2.125   15
17.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth        1:29.305  + 2.219   14
18.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth           1:30.618  + 3.532   19
19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth           1:30.884  + 3.798   22
20.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth          1:31.341  + 4.255   21
21.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth          1:32.180  + 5.094   16
22.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth             1:32.230  + 5.144   21
23.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth             1:32.762  + 5.676   19
24.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes     No time              1

All Timing Unofficial