2012 European GP FP3 results: Button goes fastest

2009 World Champion Jenson Button came back from his Friday struggles to top the timesheets during the 3rd and final practice session of the European Grand Prix in Valencia.

Button knocked Lotus driver Romain Grosjean off the top spot at the last minutes of the session; Kimi Raikkonen was right behind in 3rd.

Force India’s strong pace continued as both drivers made it into the top 10, with Nico Hulkenberg in 4th and teammate Paul Di Resta 5th ahead of Sauber driver Sergio Perez.

Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher was 7th fastest, followed by McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, while Pastor Maldonado, who showed strong pace on medium tyres, completed the top 10.

Sebastian Vettel ended up a low 13th place, but the German is still considered the man to beat after setting purple sector times before aborting his lap.

Pos  Driver                Team                  Time          Laps
 1.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m38.562            
 2.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m38.655s  + 0.093  
 3.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m38.759s  + 0.197  
 4.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m38.819s  + 0.257  
 5.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m38.892s  + 0.330  
 6.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        1m39.084s  + 0.522  
 7.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m39.141s  + 0.579  
 8.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m39.178s  + 0.616  
 9.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m39.318s  + 0.756  
10.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m39.357s  + 0.795  
11.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m39.358s  + 0.796  
12.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m39.395s  + 0.833  
13.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m39.434s  + 0.872  
14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault      1m39.543s  + 0.981  
15.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m39.946s  + 1.384  
16.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m40.037s  + 1.475  
17.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m40.134s  + 1.572  
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m40.681s  + 2.119  
19.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m41.282s  + 2.720  
20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault      1m41.931s  + 3.369  
21.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth          1m42.758s  + 4.196  
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth     1m42.815s  + 4.253  
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m42.943s  + 4.381  
24.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth     1m43.124s  + 4.562