» 2013 Belgian GP: Vettel tops final practice

In similar situations to yesterday – although thankfully minus the tyre punctures – Sebastian Vettel took top honours once again as practice drew to a close for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The German narrowly edged out championship rival Fernando Alonso by a tenth of a second, who was in turn another tenth of a second faster than Mark Webber.

With conditions proving sunny for today’s one-hour session, Jean-Éric Vergne proved that his Friday practice pace was no fluke with another top-five result. The Frenchman again left Toro Rosso teammate Daniel Ricciardo trailing in his wake down in eleventh place on the timing screens.

Vergne could not be more of a headache to the young Australian if he tried, with Ricciardo desperately trying to prove to the senior Red Bull Racing team of his worth as it looks to find a suitable replacement for Mark Webber. Being out-paced by former competition in the same machinery, in what is usually Ricciardo’s domain, flying laps, doesn’t reflect well on the Aussie.

McLaren’s session was interrupted by electrical and floor plank problems for Jenson Button, and floor damage for Sergio Perez, which caused them both to have limited running. Despite this, Button set a competitive lap five-tenths behind Vettel, which landed him in sixth position; Perez finished further down the order in sixteenth.

Mercedes again made little impact on the overall timing boards, with Rosberg ninth and Hamilton outside the top-ten in twelfth place. Although there have been speculations that Mercedes are running heavier loads during the qualifying practice of FP3, Hamilton still seemed to be struggling with the set-up and balance of his car, even finding himself facing the wrong way around at the Bus Stop chicane.

The Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta also found themselves lower than expected in thirteenth and fifteenth respectively, often getting caught out with understeer, along with other drivers, at Turn 9.

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

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:48.327		16
2.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:48.432	+ 0.105	14
3.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:48.533	+ 0.206	16
4.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:48.776	+ 0.449	15
5.	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:48.788	+ 0.461	15
6.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:48.882	+ 0.555	13
7.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:48.930	+ 0.603	18
8.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:48.967	+ 0.640	14
9.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:48.993	+ 0.666	16
10.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:49.008	+ 0.681	17
11.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:49.035	+ 0.708	15
12.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:49.046	+ 0.719	17
13.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:49.122	+ 0.795	15
14.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault FW35	1:49.177	+ 0.860	15
15.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:49.226	+ 0.899	14
16.	Sergio Pérez	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:49.417	+ 1.090	14
17.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:49.478	+ 1.151	19
18.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault FW35	1:50.418	+ 2.091	14
19.	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault CT03	1:51.416	+ 3.089	15
20.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault CT03	1:51.800	+ 3.473	18
21.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:52.221	+ 3.894	17
22.	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:53.507	+ 5.180	18