2011 Indian Grand Prix (Rd 17, Free Practice 3, Oct 29th, TV Notes)

New Delhi International. © John Chapman / Creative Commons.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel made the best of the dusty Jaypee International Circuit to go quickest in final practice on Saturday morning.

A late qualifying simulation took the Champion to the top of the standings with a best of 1:24.824; over three-tenths ahead of Jenson Button (McLaren), Mark Webber (Red Bull) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren).

The foursome swapped the top positions several times in the final few minutes, as they lay claim to their qualifying pace, but once again Vettel trumped the field.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa assumed 5th and 6th, albeit one second down on Red Bull’s regular fast man.
The Italian team changed their front wing specification in the latter part of the session, due to the alternate version rubbing violently off the ground as it shook under the forces.

Force India showed pace in front of their “home” crowd, coming home 7th (Paul di Resta) and 9th (Adrian Sutil).
The Anglo-Indian squad squeezed Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes machine, with Sutil one-tenth shy of Rosberg after meeting traffic on his quickest tour.

Like the opening pair of sessions, there were offs galore, topped by two dramatic spins – first by HRT’s Narain Karthikeyan, although this was later bettered by Bruno Senna’s high-speed trip through the turn eleven run-off.

Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap Laps
 1.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m24.824s            18
 2.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m25.191s  + 0.367s  15
 3.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m25.203s  + 0.379s  19
 4.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m25.288s  + 0.464s  16
 5.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m25.784s  + 0.960s  17
 6.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m26.058s  + 1.234s  16
 7.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m26.785s  + 1.961s  19
 8.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m26.873s  + 2.049s  22
 9.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m26.958s  + 2.134s  19
10.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m27.146s  + 2.322s  20
11.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m27.217s  + 2.393s  21
12.  Bruno Senna         Renault               1m27.235s  + 2.411s  20
13.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m27.262s  + 2.438s  19
14.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m27.280s  + 2.456s  18
15.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m27.387s  + 2.563s  20
16.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m27.749s  + 2.925s  21
17.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth     1m27.793s  + 2.969s  17
18.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m27.875s  + 3.051s  20
19.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Renault         1m29.355s  + 4.531s  21
20.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault         1m29.750s  + 4.926s  19
21.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m30.683s  + 5.859s  23
22.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth          1m30.900s  + 6.076s  25
23.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m32.851s  + 8.027s  19
24.  Daniel Ricciardo    HRT-Cosworth          1m33.246s  + 8.422s  16

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