» 2012 Japanese GP: Vettel on top in FP3

Sebastian Vettel has led another Red Bull Racing 1-2 in practice, this time reversing the order led by team-mate Mark Webber in yesterday’s second practice session.

Neither of the team’s main rivals from McLaren featured prominently in the timesheets in today’s final one-hour session, although both Jenson Button (sixth-fastest) and Lewis Hamilton (thirteenth) both had hot laps ruined by slower cars.

Conditions were again dry and fine when the circuit opened for business at 11:00AM local time, and Vettel had asserted himself with the fastest time by the session’s midpoint.

The German posted a quicker effort to knock Webber off top spot by just under a quarter of a second, while Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher wound up third- and fourth-fastest, just ahead of Sauber duo Sergio Pérez and Kamui Kobayashi.

Traffic posed significant problems during the course of the session, and both McLaren drivers were the victims when they came across slower cars wondering about the racing line. Button had to take avoiding action with Schumacher after he came across the German at 130R, while Hamilton did well not to hit Charles Pic, who’d all but parked his Marussia on the racing line at the Casio Triangle chicane.

Kimi Räikkönen again had a torrid session, winding up well down the timesheets and without more valuable track mileage. After being hit with KERS issues yesterday, the Finn was troubled today by a rear anti-roll bar problem.

Räikkönen’s problems paled in comparison to Nico Hülkenberg, who gave the Force India mechanics yet more work to when he crashed out of the session. The German lost the rear end of his car and skidded into the barriers, causing significant damage to his left-front suspension and left-rear quarter.

2012 Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 3 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault RB8	1:32.136		17
2.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault RB8	1:32.371	+ 0.235	20
3.	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari F2012	1:32.824	+ 0.688	13
4.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes AMG F1 W03	1:32.918	+ 0.782	23
5.	Sergio Pérez	Sauber Ferrari C31	1:32.920	+ 0.784	19
6.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber Ferrari C31	1:32.924	+ 0.788	15
7.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-27	1:33.008	+ 0.872	15
8.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Renault E20	1:33.025	+ 0.889	21
9.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM05	1:33.094	+ 0.958	17
10.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault FW34	1:33.160	+ 1.024	16
11.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F2012	1:33.184	+ 1.048	14
12.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Renault E20	1:33.224	+ 1.088	15
13.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes MP4-27	1:33.569	+ 1.433	14
14.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR7	1:33.722	+ 1.586	18
15.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG F1 W03	1:33.899	+ 1.763	23
16.	Bruno Senna	Williams Renault FW34	1:33.984	+ 1.848	19
17.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR7	1:34.023	+ 1.887	19
18.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India Mercedes VJM05	1:34.369	+ 2.233	11
19.	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham Renault CT01	1:35.568	+ 3.432	19
20.	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham Renault CT01	1:36.355	+ 4.219	18
21.	Timo Glock	Marussia Racing Cosworth MR01	1:36.389	+ 4.253	11
22.	Charles Pic	Marussia Racing Cosworth MR01	1:36.517	+ 4.381	18
23.	Narain Karthikeyan	HRTF1 Cosworth F112	1:36.649	+ 4.513	12
24.	Pedro de la Rosa	HRTF1 Cosworth F112	1:36.875	+ 4.739	16