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Vettel hits the front in final practice

Sebastian Vettel shrugged off his lack of Friday running to go quickest in the final practice session ahead of Turkish Grand Prix qualifying

The Red Bull driver edged out countryman Michael Schumacher by just a thousandth of a second as Mercedes continued to show very promising form and took second and fourth places, with Mark Webber putting the second Red Bull third ahead of Nico Rosberg.

After his Friday crash, Vettel had insisted that the loss of the afternoon's dry running would not hold him back - and he proved his point by hitting the front 25 minutes into today's session, and remaining on top until the late qualifying-style soft tyre runs started.

The usual flurry of changes at that juncture saw Sebastien Buemi, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso, and both Mercedes take turns at the front in quick succession, before Vettel reclaimed the top spot by setting a 1m26.037s with a minute a go. It was just 0.001s ahead of Schumacher's time, but some of Vettel's advantage had been lost when he came across Tonio Liuzzi's Hispania in the final corners.

Mercedes had held first and second going into the closing minutes before both Red Bulls made their late improvements to take first and third.

The McLarens were fifth and sixth, Jenson Button ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Behind Vitaly Petrov's seventh-placed Renault, the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa were eighth and ninth. The former slowed after his soft tyre run, reporting that his car was stuck in sixth gear.

Buemi's soft tyre time in the Toro Rosso was good enough to keep him in 10th. His team-mate Jaime Alguersuari had the only notable incident of the session when he spun off at Turn 4.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m26.037s            17
 2.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m26.038s  + 0.001s  17
 3.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m26.404s  + 0.367s  16
 4.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m26.420s  + 0.383s  19
 5.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m26.578s  + 0.541s  17
 6.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m26.726s  + 0.689s  14
 7.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m26.755s  + 0.718s  20
 8.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m26.819s  + 0.782s  12
 9.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m26.883s  + 0.846s  12
10.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m27.080s  + 1.043s  16
11.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m27.121s  + 1.084s  20
12.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth     1m27.255s  + 1.218s  18
13.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m27.318s  + 1.281s  19
14.  Nick Heidfeld       Renault               1m27.379s  + 1.342s  17
15.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m27.528s  + 1.491s  19
16.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m27.644s  + 1.607s  18
17.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m27.724s  + 1.687s  15
18.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m27.976s  + 1.939s  19
19.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault         1m28.911s  + 2.874s  15
20.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Renault         1m29.697s  + 3.660s  17
21.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m31.097s  + 5.060s  25
22.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m31.175s  + 5.138s  19
23.  Tonio Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth          1m31.375s  + 5.338s  19
24.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth          1m32.009s  + 5.972s  15

All timing unofficial

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