Vettel still leads the way in Shanghai

Practice for Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix concluded this morning and Sebastian Vettel once again set the fastest time.

The Red Bull driver was the only one to break under the 1’35 barrier and ended the session two tenths of a second clear of his closest rival, Jenson Button.

Lewis Hamilton was third fastest. Nico Rosberg confirmed Mercedes’ good form in Shanghai with the fourth fastest time. He outpaced both Ferraris of Alonso and Massa.

Petrov, Sutil, Schumacher and Di Resta completed the top ten.

Mark Webber’s RB7 appeared to have some problems and the Australian only completed a handful of laps in this session. He didn’t get the opportunity to run the soft tyre and ended with the 15th fastest time.

How the session panned out :

There was a brief lull after the customary installation laps. Paul di Resta eventually broke the silence and headed out to try and make up some of the time lost on Friday afternoon – a fuel pressure problem had forced him to miss the whole session.

He was soon joined on track by both HRTs and Glock’s Virgin. The Force India driver was the quickest of the group but didn’t stay long on top of the timesheet as Michael Schumacher started his working program.

As the former World Champion set the early pace, the session progressively came to life. Jenson Button was the first ‘big gun’ to join the action and immediately took over at the front. He subsequently lost a place to teammate Hamilton and another to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel… only to reclaim the lead seconds later. Nico Rosberg was then hot on his heels.

Shortly before the halfway point, Vettel resumed his duty at the front with a 1’36’’053 which put him 0.8s clear of Button and Rosberg. The Ferraris slotted in fourth and sixth place while Mark Webber stayed in the pits. He came out with just over 25 minutes left for another installation lap.

Soft tyres then made their appearance. Rosberg topped Vettel by four tenths of a second. Minutes later, Webber completed his first timed lap to move up to P5.

With ten minutes left, the only cars on track were the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa. They were soon joined by Button and Vettel. The German was fastest of all in the first two sectors and moved back on top, two tenths of a second clear of Button. Rosberg was third fastest, with Massa fourth.

Hamilton then jumped in third, 0.2s behind his teammate.

Jérôme d’Ambrosio ran over a kerb in the dying moments of the session, damaging his front wing.

FP3 classification: