Vettel leads close final practice session

2013 Malaysian Grand Prix third practice

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Sebastian Vettel led the times at the end of a close final practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Vettel produced a lap of 1’36.435 on medium tyres in the final minutes of practice. He stayed out for another run on the softer tyres and found more time in the first sector before the tyres began to drop off.

Second fastest was Lewis Hamilton who set his time several minutes earlier. He returned to the track for another run at the end of the session but picked up front-right tyre damage, the rubber breaking up as he returned to the garage.

Behind him Adrian Sutil and Mark Webber were covered by four-hundredths of a second. Paul di Resta backed up his team mate’s pace with the sixth-fastest time.

Kimi Raikkonen was fifth-quickest with a lap of 1’36.806, some eight tenths of a second fastest than his team mate. Romain Grosjean ended the session 14th but aborted his best lap when he understeered wide at turn eight when he caught a Caterham. He had been quick up to that point setting the fastest first sector time.

McLaren had an encouraging session with Jenson Button seventh-quickest, less than four tenths of a second off the pace. He also set the quickest time on hard tyres with a 1’37.521.

The Ferraris languished towards the bottom of the top ten with Felipe Massa half a second off Vettel’s time.

Pastor Maldonado was 11th for Williams despite a slide at turn four. Nico Hulkenberg ran a long stint on hard tyres during the session before a late switch to mediums moved him up to 12th.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’36.43520
210Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’36.5680.13317
315Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’36.5880.15319
42Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’36.6130.17820
57Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’36.8060.37119
614Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’36.8070.37218
75Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’36.8220.38716
84Felipe MassaFerrari1’36.9460.51114
99Nico RosbergMercedes1’36.9490.51425
103Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’37.3020.86714
1116Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’37.3590.92411
126Sergio PerezMcLaren1’37.5381.10312
1311Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’37.6851.25023
148Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’37.6901.25514
1517Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’37.9361.50116
1612Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’38.2941.85917
1718Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’38.3761.94116
1819Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’38.4251.99015
1920Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’38.9952.56018
2022Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’39.7173.28221
2121Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’40.2093.77418
2223Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’40.4954.06018

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’37.1041’36.5881’36.435-0.15368
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’37.8401’37.5741’36.568-1.00667
3Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’37.0031’36.5691’36.806+0.23762
4Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’37.7691’37.7881’36.588-1.18146
5Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’36.9351’37.0261’36.613-0.32264
6Felipe MassaFerrari1’37.7711’36.6611’36.946+0.28562
7Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’37.7731’37.5711’36.807-0.76463
8Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’38.1731’37.8651’36.822-1.04361
9Nico RosbergMercedes1’37.5881’37.4481’36.949-0.49976
10Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’37.3191’36.9851’37.302+0.31750
11Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’37.9151’37.2061’37.690+0.48457
12Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’38.6731’38.8011’37.359-1.31454
13Sergio PerezMcLaren1’38.8301’37.8381’37.538-0.350
14Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’39.0541’38.0681’37.685-0.38371
15Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’39.2081’39.6601’37.936-1.27263
16Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’39.2041’38.6451’38.294-0.35156
17Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’39.2841’38.7381’38.376-0.36264
18Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’39.5671’38.9041’38.425-0.47962
19Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’41.1631’40.7571’38.995-1.76265
20Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’40.9961’39.5081’39.717+0.20965
21Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’40.7281’40.7681’40.209-0.51967
22Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’41.5131’41.4381’40.495-0.94359

2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

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Image © Red Bull/Getty

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “Vettel leads close final practice session”

  1. All of a sudden , Mclaren looks good…

    1. rather – not horribly off the pace – at least on the Hards they were very solid, so I guess they could even try for qualifying on them in Q3 (if they get in there)

    2. not quite, track evolution.

  2. Looks like its tight again, and the race order might be slightly different than last round. Looking good for an entertaining race but tough for predictions!

  3. even though it’s early days i think the people criticizing sutil may feel a bit embarrased, soon (hopefully) bianchi will be his team mate next year for FI (unless they get a better drive)

  4. If Mclaren can set such fast times while having problems, then I wonder how fast the car can really be if they’ve sorted out their handling issues. This also confirms my belief that they have mainly a setup problem with the car, not saying they aerodynamics of the car doesn’t need refinement though.

  5. Lotus were not running the new exhaust in FP3, well at least not the titanium version of it.

  6. I am so happy to see the Force Indias up there. Sutil and Di Resta had solid pace in Australia and they seem strong again. I hope they keep up the good work. It feels good to have a new team among the big dogs.
    Also, it is shocking how quickly Keith managed to put this results with a comment and a picture, just after minutes of the session. I am truly impressed.

    1. Really nice to see Force India moving forward.

  7. Aditya (@adityafakhri)
    23rd March 2013, 6:34

    boy, the tyre brings too much uncertainty for prediction championship!
    Kimi abused his first prime, but then rather consistent although not being fastest. Mercedes looked super until Lewis damaged the tyre (again). Red Bull is still the fastest but who knows their long pace? Ferrari seems faded, McLaren already found the pace (the ride not improving much though). and Force India sneaks a chance for being in podium tomorrow.
    less wheel to wheel racing and more strategical stuffs tomorrrow, for sure.

    1. @Adityafakhri ferrari will surely go quicker in qualy..they had better times in FP2

  8. I am enjoying the progress being made by Force India. It is encouraging to see new teams progressing to the front and some front runners struggling to maintain their positions . It is quite good for the sport cos I find it sometimes boring to watch the big 3 continuously slug it out for the championship year in year out. I hope FI maintain their current pace and even progress further through out the entire championship.

  9. the tires suck.

Comments are closed.