» 2013 Malaysian GP: Vettel fastest in final practice

Sebastian Vettel topped the final practice session before qualifying today, with only five tenths separating the fastest nine drivers.

Vettel set a 1.36.435 which was just good enough to beat Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. Hamilton set his time earlier in the session while Vettel along with team-mate Mark Webber practiced their long runs, languishing down the timesheet for most of the session. Webber would end up fourth, showing encouraging signs for Red Bull as the clouds once again hover for qualifying this afternoon.

Speaking of encouraging, Adrian Sutil and Force India once again showed they may put in a surprise result with the third quickest time. Sutil was second for the majority of the second before dropping down the field, and then jumped back up the time sheets to be only one tenth of Vettel’s fastest time. Paul di Resta also showed pace for the team, finishing in sixth, one thousandth of a second off yesterday’s fastest man Kimi Raikkonen.

Jenson Button finally put his McLaren in the top ten by finishing in seventh place. Encouragingly for the team he was only four tenths off the fastest time, and ahead of both Ferrari’s of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. Massa again topped his team-mate in eighth, with Alonso in tenth.

Nico Rosberg couldn’t match it with Hamilton but still finished in ninth place, showing that Mercedes too are within striking distance of a good result this weekend. Like McLaren, Williams also showed some improved pace with Pastor Maldonado in eleventh and Valtteri Bottas in fifteenth.

Sergio Perez still can’t crack the ten as he set the twelfth-fastest time, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean who remains a long way off his team-mate. Esteban Gutierrez was nearly a full second slower than his fellow Sauber of Hulkenberg, while once again the Toro Rosso’s struggled to match the mid field, Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo in 17th and 18th again.

In the back of the field, Charles Pic took the honours, beating out Jules Bianchi and his team-mate Giedo van der Garde. Max Chilton brought up the rear of the field again, four seconds off the pace.

It looks like there could be another wet qualifying session with rain forecast and clouds hovering over Sepang, with a wide variety of teams showing promising pace as the shoot out for pole is only hours away.

2013 Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 3 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:36.435		20
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:36.568	+ 0.133	17
3.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:36.588	+ 0.153	19
4.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:36.613	+ 0.178	20
5.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:36.806	+ 0.371	19
6.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:36.807	+ 0.372	18
7.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:36.822	+ 0.387	16
8.	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:36.946	+ 0.511	14
9.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:36.949	+ 0.514	25
10.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:37.302	+ 0.867	14
11.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault FW35	1:37.359	+ 0.924	11
12.	Sergio Pérez	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:37.538	+ 1.103	12
13.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:37.685	+ 1.250	23
14.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:37.690	+ 1.255	14
15.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault FW35	1:37.936	+ 1.501	16
16.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:38.294	+ 1.859	17
17.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:38.376	+ 1.941	16
18.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:38.425	+ 1.990	15
19.	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault CT03	1:38.995	+ 2.560	18
20.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:39.717	+ 3.282	21
21.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault CT03	1:40.209	+ 3.774	18
22.	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:40.495	+ 4.060	18