Once again, Sebastian Vettel was the man to beat as he topped the timesheets on Saturday’s third and final practice session for the inaugural Austin Grand Prix in the USA.
Vettel’s 1:36.490 was fastest of the weekend so far, and enough to put him 2 tenths clear of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton seems the only threat to Vettel’s dominance.
Pastor Maldonado was a last minute surprise as went 3rd quickest for Williams ahead of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg who was sandwiched by the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.
Mark Webber, Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg and Jenson Button completed the remaining top 10 spots on an improving track, with 3 hours left for the qualifying session.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m36.490s 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m36.748s + 0.258s 3. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m37.001s + 0.511s 4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m37.180s + 0.690s 5. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m37.247s + 0.757s 6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m37.262s + 0.772s 7. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m37.298s + 0.808s 8. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m37.415s + 0.925s 9. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m37.495s + 1.005s 10. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m37.538s + 1.048s 11. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m37.569s + 1.079s 12. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m37.760s + 1.270s 13. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m37.765s + 1.275s 14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m37.953s + 1.463s 15. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m38.547s + 2.057s 16. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m38.653s + 2.163s 17. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m38.753s + 2.263s 18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m39.689s + 3.199s 19. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m40.407s + 3.917s 20. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m40.753s + 4.263s 21. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m41.011s + 4.521s 22. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m41.466s + 4.976s 23. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m43.563s + 7.073s 24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m44.043s + 7.553s 2