Red Bull ahead of Mercedes as practice ends

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix third practice

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Red Bull and Mercedes traded fastest times throughout the final practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but the world champions ended the session on top.

Sebastian Vettel fell short of his quickest lap from yesterday but his best time of 1’41.349 was still better than anyone else could manage in the final hour.

Mark Webber’s final effort left him two tenths of a second away from his team mate and less than a hundredth of a second faster than Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes/

Romain Grosjean was the quickest of the two Lotus drivers in fifth place behind Nico Rosberg. Jenson Button put McLaren in fifth as Sergio Perez’s running was limited due to blistering on his tyres.

Both Sauber drivers made it into the top ten, Nico Hulkenberg ahead of Esteban Gutierrez, following by Kimi Raikkonen and Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso.

But for the second time this weekend neither Ferrari appeared in the top ten. Fernando Alonso was 11th, over a second slower than Vettel.

Jules Bianchi damaged his Marussia with a spin at turn one 15 minutes from the end of the session. The MR02 sustained front and rear damage when he hit the barriers after losing control of his car.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’41.34919
22Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’41.5710.22217
310Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’41.5800.23118
49Nico RosbergMercedes1’41.7210.37219
58Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’41.8320.48319
65Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’41.9560.60719
711Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’42.0550.70619
812Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’42.2820.93319
97Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’42.3871.03818
1018Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’42.4571.10821
113Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’42.5161.16715
1214Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’42.6811.33223
1317Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’42.6981.34919
144Felipe MassaFerrari1’42.7021.35316
1519Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’42.7271.37818
1616Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’42.7981.44918
1715Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’42.9891.64022
186Sergio PerezMcLaren1’43.1421.79315
1921Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’44.4723.12320
2020Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’44.7283.37921
2123Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’45.6214.27220
2222Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’47.5066.15715

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’44.4991’41.3351’41.349+0.01472
2Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’44.7121’41.4901’41.571+0.08169
3Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’44.4331’41.6901’41.580-0.1178
4Nico RosbergMercedes1’44.7411’41.7581’41.721-0.03784
5Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’44.9291’41.7261’42.387+0.66183
6Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’44.2411’42.6071’41.832-0.77558
7Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’45.0991’42.0101’41.956-0.05470
8Sergio PerezMcLaren1’45.3311’42.0061’43.142+1.13671
9Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’45.3781’42.3241’42.055-0.26983
10Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’45.4401’42.1711’42.516+0.34564
11Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’46.0681’42.5091’42.282-0.22776
12Felipe MassaFerrari1’46.1241’42.4401’42.702+0.26270
13Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’46.1141’43.2711’42.457-0.81479
14Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’45.0401’42.8061’42.681-0.12570
15Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’45.8231’43.5651’42.698-0.86777
16Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’46.1261’43.1521’42.727-0.42568
17Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’45.1501’42.9521’42.798-0.15478
18Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’42.9981’42.989-0.00949
19Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’44.1381’44.472+0.33455
20Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’47.7231’44.4591’47.506+3.04773
21Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’47.6001’44.5251’44.728+0.20381
22Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’45.5651’45.621+0.05647
23James CaladoForce India-Mercedes1’45.92420
24Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault1’47.67022
25Rodolfo GonzalezMarussia-Cosworth1’49.56522

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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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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3 comments on “Red Bull ahead of Mercedes as practice ends”

  1. I didn’t watch it but why weren’t RB noticeably faster than yesterday? Sandbagging or something else? I would have thought more rubber on track, track probably warmer than FP2, dialing into qualy etc would mean faster lap times…

  2. Formula 1 drivers have been warned that they risk having qualifying times disallowed at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix if they abuse track limits at the final corner.
    It is going to be very interesting qualifying to watch :)

  3. FP3 times are interesting:

    Sauber-Ferrari > Toro Rosso-Ferrari > Ferrari-Ferrari

    When did this happen last?

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