» 2012 Indian GP: Vettel a pole favourite after topping final practice times

Sebastian Vettel has continued to dominate proceedings at this weekend’s Indian Grand Prix, yet again finishing atop the timesheets at the end of each of the event’s free practice sessions. The German is an almost unbackable favourite to claim pole position in this afternoon’s qualifying session.

The defending race-winner posted his fastest lap time of this morning’s one-hour session a little past its halfway point, and from that moment on, no one could come close to toppling him from top spot.

Having shown consistent race pace with heavier fuel loads yesterday, McLaren proved that it could challenge to avoid a Red Bull Racing front-row lockout by getting Jenson Button into second-fastest, just under two-tenths of a second off Vettel’s best.

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished up fourth-fastest in the sister McLaren, with the pair sandwiching Mark Webber on the timesheets. Webber claimed the position on his final run on soft tyres, although his session was interrupted with a spin at the final corner.

Kimi Räikkönen finished the session fifth-quickest in his Lotus, while Bruno Senna managed sixth overall. The Brazilian showed excellent pace on the harder Pirelli times, going third-quickest overall in his Williams.

The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa finished further down the order than most would have expected, although the Italian team was concentrating on a specific program during the session, which included each of the drivers helping the other with slipstreaming down the track’s long back straight.

Rounding out the top ten were Nico Hülkenberg, Michael Schumacher and Romain Grosjean, who complained of a lack of grip and stability in his Lotus’ handling.

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

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault RB8	1:25.842		20
2.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-27	1:26.034	+ 0.192	17
3.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault RB8	1:26.108	+ 0.266	18
4.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes MP4-27	1:26.151	+ 0.309	21
5.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Renault E20	1:26.209	+ 0.367	22
6.	Bruno Senna	Williams Renault FW34	1:26.214	+ 0.372	24
7.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F2012	1:26.521	+ 0.679	15
8.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India Mercedes VJM05	1:26.531	+ 0.689	21
9.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes AMG F1 W03	1:26.652	+ 0.810	21
10.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Renault E20	1:26.664	+ 0.822	21
11.	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari F2012	1:26.691	+ 0.849	13
12.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault FW34	1:27.140	+ 1.298	18
13.	Sergio Pérez	Sauber Ferrari C31	1:27.162	+ 1.320	21
14.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM05	1:27.193	+ 1.351	22
15.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG F1 W03	1:27.229	+ 1.387	21
16.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR7	1:27.374	+ 1.532	21
17.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR7	1:27.711	+ 1.869	20
18.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber Ferrari C31	1:27.983	+ 2.141	19
19.	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham Renault CT01	1:29.035	+ 3.193	20
20.	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham Renault CT01	1:29.237	+ 3.395	20
21.	Timo Glock	Marussia Racing Cosworth MR01	1:29.617	+ 3.775	20
22.	Charles Pic	Marussia Racing Cosworth MR01	1:30.298	+ 4.456	20
23.	Narain Karthikeyan	HRTF1 Cosworth F112	1:30.824	+ 4.982	22
24.	Pedro de la Rosa	HRTF1 Cosworth F112	1:30.873	+ 5.031	22