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2013 Belgian Grand Prix Saturday practice
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A dry session but rain is inching ever-closer to Spa. Are we set for a wet qualifying session? Join us later to find out.
Massa ends the session in fifth with Button sixth, Gutierrez seventh, Grosjean eighth, Rosberg ninth and Raikkonen rounds out the top 10.
Sebastian Vettel tops final practice at Spa with 1m48.327s, edging out Alonso by 0.105s with Webber third and Vergne an impressive fourth.
Ricciardo crosses the line at the end of his final effort but he does not improve and remains in 11th spot.
Checkered flag
That's it, flag out on final practice.
Button's pace is off in the twisting middle sector and a lack of downforce will not be helpful when it rains.
Hamilton posted a personal best in the first sector, but he has bundles of understeer through the fast double-apex Pouhon corner and he backs off.
Button is now fastest in the first sector as he perhaps finally finds the benefit of his earlier rear wing change.
Vergne also moves significantly up the order to fourth spot with a time of 1m48.776s in the Toro Rosso.
Stopwatch
Vettel rounds the final chicane and he duly goes fastest of all with 1m48.327s.
Here we go - Vettel is fastest of all in the first sector with 31.565s.
Ricciardo moves into eighth, demoting Hamilton to ninth with a lap of 1m49.035s in the Toro Rosso.
Button now takes over fourth fastest with a 1m48.882s.
Hamilton moves up to eighth spot in the Mercedes with a time of 1m49.046s.
Gutierrez has clocked 1m48.930s in his Sauber for a current fourth fastest, indicating that some of these leading runners are not giving all
Webber crosses the line and he goes second with a time of 1m48.533s, one-tenth down on Alonso.
Webber is quick in sector one and fastest of all in the middle portion of the circuit.
Raikkonen drifts wide avoiding di Resta in the final sector but still comes in fourth fastest.
Vettel eventually heads out to join the party.with six minutes of the session remaining.
Raikkonen is now on his soft tyre effort, topping the middle sector.
Only one man left in the pits. His name is Vettel.
Bottas and Ricciardo head out for their qualifying simulation run.
Massa springs up to second fastest, 0.356s slower than his team-mate.
Di Resta crosses the line and he moves up to fifth spot with 1m49.226s.
Rosberg goes second to Alonso with a lap of 1m48.993s.
Hamilton and Webber join the fun with medium tyres on.
Stopwatch
1m48.432s puts Alonso on top with medium tyres, well over a second quicker than his hard tyre efforts.
Alonso tops the second sector and is set to take the benchmark for the moment.
Sutil finds 1.6s with that change to the option tyre.
Alonso quickly takes away that leading first sector time as the screen is decorated by improving laptimes.
Stopwatch
Sutil goes fastest of all with a time of 1m49.135s.
Sutil's last lap time was 1m50.713s and he is fastest of all in the first sector of the lap.
Rosberg and di Resta join the racetrack on medium compound tyres.
Teams found a solid pace increase of around a second per lap yesterday on this medium compound, so times should improve here.
Sutil crosses the line and begins a timed lap.
Alonso is next out with medium rubber on his Ferrari.
Sutil breaks the silence and he is the first to head out with a set of medium compound tyres bolted on.
With Gutierrez in, the circuit is now empty. The calm before the storm as everyone gets ready for the medium tyre runs.
Another moment for Hulkenberg as he gets his braking wrong at the end of the DRS straight into Les Combes, taking to the run-off.
Rain still a distance away, so teams are preparing for the traditional flying finish on the softer tyres.
By: Emlyn Hughes, Geoff Creighton
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