Vettel again fastest in Delhi

The German keeps setting unmatchable times. Jenson Button managed to settle himself second ahead of the other Red Bull of Mark Webber.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

NEW DELHI, Oct 27, 2012 (AFP) - Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel topped the times again for Red Bull in Saturday morning's final free practice session for this weekend's Indian Grand Prix.

The 25-year-old German, fastest in both sessions on Friday, completed his set with another quick performance, but he was less dominant than expected on a day when Red Bull were split at the top of the time-sheets by Briton Jenson Button in a McLaren.

Australian Mark Webber was third in the other Red Bull, ahead of Briton Lewis Hamilton, in the second McLaren, and Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus.

Championship challenger Spaniard Fernando Alonso was unable to improve on seventh in his final practice session for Ferrari.

On another dry and warm morning at the demanding Buddh International Circuit at Noida, to the southeast of Delhi, the Red Bull team were again the standard setters in the final preparatory session before qualifying.

But this time it was not so easy for Vettel and the top six were separated by only four-tenths of a second and both McLaren men looked threatening, notably on hard tyres in Hamilton's case.

Brazilian Bruno Senna was also fast again his Williams as he took sixth place ahead of Alonso, with German Nico Hulkenberg eighth for Force India ahead of compatriot Michael Schumacher in the leading Mercedes and Frenchman Romain Grosjean in the second Lotus.

Fresh from signing his contract for another year at Ferrari, Brazilian Felipe Massa was down in 11th ahead of Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado in the second Williams.

The times for the last práctice session:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1:25.842		20
2	3	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:26.034	0.192	17
3	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	1:26.108	0.266	18
4	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	1:26.151	0.309	21
5	9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	1:26.209	0.367	22
6	19	Bruno Senna	Williams	1:26.214	0.372	24
7	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:26.521	0.679	15
8	12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:26.531	0.689	21
9	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:26.652	0.810	21
10	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:26.664	0.822	21
11	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:26.691	0.849	13
12	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1:27.140	1.298	18
13	15	Sergio Perez	Sauber	1:27.162	1.320	21
14	11	Paul di Resta	Force India	1:27.193	1.351	22
15	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:27.229	1.387	21
16	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	1:27.374	1.532	21
17	17	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1:27.711	1.869	20
18	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	1:27.983	2.141	19
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	1:29.035	3.193	20
20	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	1:29.237	3.395	20
21	24	Timo Glock	Marussia	1:29.617	3.775	20
22	25	Charles Pic	Marussia	1:30.298	4.456	20
23	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	1:30.824	4.982	22
24	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	1:30.873	5.031	22