Practice Three: Hamilton leads McLaren 1-2

Lewis Hamilton topped the Abu Dhabi weekend's second McLaren 1-2 in a practice session that saw Sebastian Vettel have just six minutes of running

With the track temperature a blistering 46'C, Kamui Kobayashi was the first to get down to business with a 1:49.193 at the start of Saturday's final practice. The Sauber driver continued lapping on a free race track, lowering the benchmark to a 1:45.628.

The Japanese driver's run sparked of a flurry of activity while the track temperature fell by three degrees in the first 15 minutes of the session.

Kimi Raikkonen was the next to lead the way while his Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean lined up behind him. But it was all change as Lewis Hamilton came flying through, setting fastest times in the first and third sectors on his way to a 1:44.264.

The McLaren driver lost out to Pastor Maldonado only to come back him the next lap while Michael Schumacher, who Hamilton will replace at Mercedes next season, climbing to third place. Hamilton had the benchmark time down to a 1:42.851 at the halfway mark although at that point Sebastian Vettel had not set a time.

Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso joined Hamilton at the top of the timesheets, however, the two chasers were already a second slower when Hamilton put his foot down and extended his advantage to 1.471s over Vettel's team-mate. Alonso was a further 0.015s adrift.

As for Vettel, with 20 minutes remaining he was still stuck in the pits without a time to his name as his Red Bull mechanics were bleeding his brakes. He finally ventured out with six minutes on the clock as his main rivals begun their soft tyre runs.

That saw Webber improve to third, Grosjean take fourth ahead of Maldonado and Hulkenberg. However, it was still a McLaren 1-2 as Hamilton upped his pace in first place while Button went quickest but remained second. Vettel came across the line third quickest, 0.484s down.

Times
01 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:42.130 18 laps
02 Jenson Button McLaren 1:42.420 0.290 17 laps
03 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:42.614 0.484 7 laps
04 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:42.743 0.613 18 laps
05 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:42.750 0.620 19 laps
06 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:43.015 0.885 18 laps
07 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:43.064 0.934 19 laps
08 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:43.133 1.003 15 laps
09 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1:43.184 1.054 22 laps
10 Paul di Resta Force India 1:43.338 1.208 19 laps
11 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:43.480 1.350 17 laps
12 Sergio Perez Sauber 1:43.571 1.441 19 laps
13 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:43.593 1.463 20 laps
14 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:43.635 1.505 18 laps
15 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1:44.010 1.880 21 laps
16 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:44.025 1.895 17 laps
17 Bruno Senna Williams 1:44.071 1.941 19 laps
18 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:44.149 2.019 19 laps
19 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 1:45.301 3.171 21 laps
20 Timo Glock Marussia 1:45.879 3.749 19 laps
21 Charles Pic Marussia 1:46.036 3.906 18 laps
22 Vitaly Petrov Caterham 1:46.261 4.131 22 laps
23 Pedro de la Rosa HRT 1:46.554 4.424 20 laps
24 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 1:47.032 4.902 22 laps

Source: Planet-F1