2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Rd 18, Free Practice 3, Nov 12th, TV Notes)

Yas Marina Circuit. © Creative Commons / Arz.

Lewis Hamilton made it three practice sessions out of three for McLaren in Abu Dhabi.

His best of 1:38.976 gave the 2008 world champion a four-tenths advantage over a chasing trio consisting of both Red Bull’s and Hamilton’s McLaren teammate, Jenson Button.

Hamilton wasn’t only quickest at the end of the session. The silver and red driver headed the time sheets while on on medium tyres, before the soft-tyred qualifying simulations began.
As the faster stints rolled out, Hamilton was demoted to 5th before returning to the summit in the final moments of the session.

Whereas the McLaren’s headed onto track straight away, both Red Bull’s waited, although for very different reasons.  Sebastian Vettel – the quicker of the pair – waited for the circuit to cool somewhat, Mark Webber lost time while his RB7 received heavy set-up changes.
Webber also lost out on a charge for the top spot on his final run, blocked by Vettel and one of the Virgin’s in the final turns.
Button, too, lost time during the session, while he had several components altered on his McLaren.

There was also work being carried out on both Ferrari’s, with Fernando Alonso losing time as his mechanics worked on his experimental rear wing.
Felipe Massa also made drastic changes to his programme, changing to the Singapore specification front wing.

Unfortunately, both Williams and Lotus endured fraught sessions. At Williams, Rubens Barrichello ran only five laps before suffering an oil leak, while Jarno Trulli’s Lotus completed just an outlap when his gearbox ceased to function fully.

Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m38.976s            17
 2.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m39.403s  + 0.427s  18
 3.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m39.427s  + 0.451s  18
 4.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m39.429s  + 0.453s  16
 5.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m39.661s  + 0.685s  16
 6.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m40.135s  + 1.159s  19
 7.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m40.183s  + 1.207s  18
 8.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m40.429s  + 1.453s  21
 9.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m40.511s  + 1.535s  19
10.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m40.938s  + 1.962s  18
11.  Bruno Senna         Renault               1m41.509s  + 2.533s  21
12.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.527s  + 2.551s  21
13.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.566s  + 2.590s  20
14.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m41.594s  + 2.618s  18
15.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m41.622s  + 2.646s  18
16.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m41.855s  + 2.879s  18
17.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth     1m42.025s  + 3.049s  19
18.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault         1m43.409s  + 4.433s  22
19.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m43.861s  + 4.885s  5
20.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m45.262s  + 6.286s  23
21.  Tonio Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth          1m45.302s  + 6.326s  20
22.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m45.509s  + 6.533s  22
23.  Daniel Ricciardo    HRT-Cosworth          1m45.732s  + 6.756s  20
24.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Renault                              1

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