Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Vettel on top again in final practice

Sebastian Vettel has convincingly come out on top in today's final practice session in Singapore, although his cause was helped by a late yellow flag that prevented his rivals from improving their times

Vettel made the most of a clear run to post a 1m48.028s in the final minutes, and when HRT's Bruno Senna came to a stop at Turn 18 with just a minute remaining, it became clear that the Red Bull's time would not be beaten.

Senna's spin forced several other frontrunners to abort flying laps, including championship leader Mark Webber (Red Bull) and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, leaving Vettel a full 0.622 seconds clear of second-placed Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.

Vettel had occupied the top of the timing screens for the last 20 minutes of the session, taking the place that had previously been held by Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren driver finished up third-quickest ahead of Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, and Webber.

The session opened with a track still dotted with damp patches from an earlier shower, meaning that the teams opted to bide their time and wait for the conditions to improve before doing any meaningful running.

Several drivers completed exploratory installation laps on intermediates before switching to slicks, and it was 20 minutes before Virgin's Lucas di Grassi completed the first timed lap of the session.

He was followed shortly afterwards by the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari, who then spent the middle part of the session trading places at the top of the timesheets with Renault's Robert Kubica and, briefly, Sebastien Buemi in the second Toro Rosso before Hamilton laid down a marker that stood for several minutes.

All the teams have been spared the worry of last-minute repairs ahead of qualifying, with the only incidents of note being a few harmless spins at the damp Turn 5 and another moment for Senna when his car was out-smarted by the kerbs at the chicane.

Pos  Driver              Car                   Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m48.028s            15
 2.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m48.650s  + 0.622s  16
 3.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m49.000s  + 0.972s  12
 4.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m49.023s  + 0.995s  18
 5.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m49.056s  + 1.028s  17
 6.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m49.212s  + 1.184s  13
 7.  Nico Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     1m49.304s  + 1.276s  17
 8.  Robert Kubica       Renault               1m49.520s  + 1.492s  16
 9.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m49.916s  + 1.888s  15
10.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m49.949s  + 1.921s  16
11.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m50.040s  + 2.012s  15
12.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m50.053s  + 2.025s  16
13.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m50.060s  + 2.032s  12
14.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m50.067s  + 2.039s  16
15.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m50.067s  + 2.039s  14
16.  Tonio Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes  1m50.868s  + 2.840s  16
17.  Nick Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari        1m51.016s  + 2.988s  15
18.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m51.027s  + 2.999s  17
19.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m52.340s  + 4.312s  14
20.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Cosworth        1m53.146s  + 5.118s  15
21.  Lucas di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth       1m53.297s  + 5.269s  15
22.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth        1m53.681s  + 5.653s  17
23.  Christian Klien     Hispania-Cosworth     1m54.826s  + 6.798s  16
24.  Bruno Senna         Hispania-Cosworth     1m55.367s  + 7.339s  16

All timing unofficial

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Hamilton expects chicane fix for 2011
Next article Alonso pips Vettel to Singapore GP pole

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe