Prac Three: Vettel asserts his dominance

Sebastian Vettel fired a warning shot at his rivals ahead of qualifying, taking the P1 slot in the final practice session by over 7/10ths

The German, who was quickest in Friday's
second practice at Barcelona, clocked a 1:20.528 to beat his team-mate Mark Webber by 0.704s while the two McLarens had no answer to Red Bull's pace.

Lewis Hamilton was third ahead of his team-mate Jenson Button, who was a full second down on Vettel's P1 time, while Michael Schumacher was, for the third session running, the quicker of the two Merc GP drivers.

Report: Final practice for the Spanish GP got underway with the usual spate of installation laps, the track temperature sitting at just 13'C and a very green track after Friday night's rain. As such it took over 15 minutes before the first times were set with Kamui Kobayashi, Nico Hulkenberg, Pedro de la Rosa and Timo Glock getting proceedings underway. Kobayashi was quickest wtih a 1:23.331.

Vitaly Petrov's morning came to an abrupt halt as the Renault rookie crashed his car, bringing out the red flags. Under braking in to Turn Four, the rear of his Renault snapped out sending him hurtling into the barriers. There is major damage to his R30 and the Russian's team now faces a race against time to get his car ready for qualifying.

Petrov, though, wasn't the only driver in the wars as seconds later Kobayashi lost control of his Sauber, the rear getting away from him, putting him sideward into the gravel. His session was also over. It appears as if both drivers put wheels on to the kerbing at the outside of the long Turn 3, which remained wet after last night's rain.

The session was green-lighted eight minutes later with Kobayashi quickest, followed by Michael Schumacher, de la Rosa, Hulkenberg, Petrov and Tonio Liuzzi.

The drivers were quickly back into action with Jenson Button taking third place before he was dropped by de la Rosa's move up to second, Lewis Hamilton's to first with a 1:21.698 and Felipe Massa's to third. Sebastian Vettel, Friday's pace-setter, claimed to second place, 0.108s behind Hamilton, while Button improved to third before he was dropped by Mark Webber.

Webber continued his run, claiming first place with a 1:21.528. The Aussie took 0.296s off his time on the next lap while Vettel climbed to second place as the duo asserted Red Bull's dominance over the field. Many are predicting an all-Red Bull front row at this circuit later today.

Fernando Alonso, who had been touring outside the top ten, found some pace to move up to fifth ahead of Massa, Adrian Sutil, Sebastien Buemi, Kobayashi and Schumacher. The latter rejoined the action, improving to third place, 0.351s down on the Red Bulls as his team-mate Nico Rosberg climbed to seventh place.

Schumacher returned to the pits and the two McLaren drivers ventured out again with Hamilton taking third place off the seven-time World Champ, who was then dropped another as Button went fourth.

Sutil became the third driver to have his morning's running cut short as he parked his Force India on the side of the track after the car lost power.

With three minutes left in the session, Vettel put in a blinder, going 0.704s quicker than his team-mate Webber. And that's how it stood as the chequered flag fell: Vettel ahead of Webber, Hamilton, Button, Schumacher, Massa, Rosberg and Alonso.

Times

01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:20.528 15 laps
02. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:21.232 + 0.704 11 laps
03. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.348 + 0.820 14 laps
04. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.376 + 0.848 16 laps
05. Schumacher Mercedes 1:21.583 + 1.055 14 laps
06. Massa Ferrari 1:21.749 + 1.221 16 laps
07. Rosberg Mercedes 1:22.013 + 1.485 14 laps
08. Alonso Ferrari 1:22.091 + 1.563 15 laps
09. Kubica Renault 1:22.242 + 1.714 20 laps
10. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:22.377 + 1.849 12 laps
11. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:22.400 + 1.872 18 laps
12. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:22.412 + 1.884 11 laps
13. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:22.527 + 1.999 20 laps
14. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:22.634 + 2.106 16 laps
15. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:22.926 + 2.398 20 laps
16. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:22.953 + 2.425 16 laps
17. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:23.597 + 3.069 12 laps
18. Petrov Renault 1:23.896 + 3.368 5 laps
19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:24.610 + 4.082 14 laps
20. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:24.745 + 4.217 11 laps
21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:25.722 + 5.194 15 laps
22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:25.855 + 5.327 14 laps
23. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:26.611 + 6.083 18 laps
24. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:30.246 + 9.718 6 lap

Source: Planet-F1