» Australian GP 3rd Practice: Webber delights home crowd with fastest time

Local crowd favourite Mark Webber has piled an enormous amount of expectation on him leading into the all-important qualifying session by topping the timesheets in the final free practice session on Saturday afternoon for the Australian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver from Queanbeyan became the first driver to drop below the 1m25s lap-time barrier, by virtue of a late, low-fuel run on the softer tyre compound in the dying minutes of the session.

His best time of 1:24.719 headed Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso by 0.210s.

The only other driver to break through the 1m25s barrier was none other than Michael Schumacher, who was really on the pace in the final session – particularly in the middle sector of the Albert Park lap.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was fourth-quickest on the timesheets, followed by Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button who rounded out the top-six-placed drivers on the timesheets.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton attempted to put his ‘hoon driving’ antics behind him and showed his talent on the circuit. An early run on the harder tyres saw him become the first driver to enter the 1m25s range, and his eventual best time of the session was nearly eight-tenths slower than Webber’s best time.

2010 Australian GP Practice 3 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Renault	1:24.719	16
2.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+ 0.210	19
3.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	+ 0.244	17
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Renault	+ 0.403	19
5.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	+ 0.647	16
6.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	+ 0.680	20
7.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	+ 0.786	14
8.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes	+ 0.806	18
9.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+ 0.830	20
10.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India Mercedes	+ 1.063	19
11.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams Cosworth	+ 1.133	17
12.	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari	+ 1.385	21
13.	Robert Kubica	Renault	+ 1.465	21
14.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber Ferrari	+ 1.556	21
15.	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari	+ 1.649	17
16.	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	+ 1.942	19
17.	Nico Hülkenberg	Williams Cosworth	+ 2.085	19
18.	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber Ferrari	+ 2.099	18
19.	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus Cosworth	+ 4.820	19
20.	Jarno Trulli	Lotus Cosworth	+ 5.081	16
21.	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin Racing Cosworth	+ 6.081	18
22.	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing Cosworth	+ 6.395	12
23.	Karun Chandhok	HRT Cosworth	+ 9.615	11
24.	Bruno Senna	HRT Cosworth	+ 11.930	8