» 2013 Bahrain GP: Alonso tops final practice

Fernando Alonso has staked his claim for pole position at this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix after going quickest in the final practice session at the Sakhir circuit.

The Spaniard posted a late flying lap to edge out Sebastian Vettel by one-tenth of a second, although the German perhaps missed out on top spot after being held up in traffic on his final flying lap.

With conditions again sunny and hot, the teams spent the first part of the one-hour session finalising their Hard-compound running before switching to the Medium tyres for some late qualifying simulation running.

It was during this phase of proceedings that Alonso – who was second-quickest behind Vettel on the Hard tyres – had a wild spin at Turn 2, taking his well-worn tyres over the edge as he rotated the Ferrari without major damage.

Nonetheless, he produced a late 1:33.247 on the Medium tyres to claim top spot, while Vettel was denied after he came across the slower Charles Pic at the final corner, falling short of Alonso’s time by 0.101 seconds.

Vettel was just three-hundredths of a second faster than teammate Mark Webber in third spot, with the Australian set to be hit with a three-place grid penalty heading into this afternoon’s qualifying session.

Kimi Räikkönen was fourth-fastest in the Lotus ahead of Lewis Hamilton, although the Englishman’s Mercedes suffered a late failure as he returned to the pits. The issue was ultimately tied to a suspension failure, but his car suffered a damaged gearbox that will see him hit with a five-place grid penalty on Sunday.

Romain Grosjean was sixth-quickest in the second Lotus, followed by the Force India duo of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta, while the two Nicos (Rosberg and Hülkenberg) completed the top-ten for Mercedes and Sauber, respectively.

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

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:33.247		12
2.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:33.348	+ 0.101	15
3.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:33.380	+ 0.133	19
4.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:33.446	+ 0.199	21
5.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:33.455	+ 0.208	19
6.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:33.464	+ 0.217	19
7.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:33.596	+ 0.349	17
8.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:33.700	+ 0.453	15
9.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:33.764	+ 0.517	19
10.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:33.922	+ 0.675	17
11.	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:33.949	+ 0.702	20
12.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:34.117	+ 0.870	17
13.	Sergio Pérez	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:34.282	+ 1.035	18
14.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:34.577	+ 1.330	16
15.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault FW35	1:34.611	+ 1.364	17
16.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:34.678	+ 1.431	16
17.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault FW35	1:34.833	+ 1.586	17
18.	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault CT03	1:35.816	+ 2.569	16
19.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:36.731	+ 3.484	17
20.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault CT03	1:36.939	+ 3.692	17
21.	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:37.630	+ 4.383	7
22.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:39.562	+ 6.345	29