Vettel tops practice 3 at Valencia

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Europe, Valencia Street Circuites

Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets once again in the last free practice session ahead of this afternoon's qualifying for the European GP. The World Champion went quicker around the Valencian harbour than local hero Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.

After all drivers completed their installation laps, Nick Heidfeld was the first to top the timesheets and held that position until Fernando Alonso bettered his time on the primes.

Vettel's first few laps though was vastly quicker, and after completing 3 flying laps his quickest time was 0.9s faster than Alonso's. Mark Webber positioned himself in between the two.

20 minutes from the end of the session, Nico Rosberg took on the faster option tyres and immediately went on top of the timesheets.

Meanwhile Jarno Trulli had his engine cut on the end of one of his laps. He rolled back into the pits and didn't return to the track.

Alonso took charge again when he fitted the options, but in the end it was Vettel again. He could go even quicker as in the last minute he was ahead of his best laptime, but a yellow flag in the last sector required him to back off a bit.

The yellow situation was caused by Kobayashi going sideways into the last corner, flat spotting all 4 tyres and breaking off the front wing as he slid along the tyre wall. Damage was very limited however and the impact is not even worth talking about.

Results

Pos.No.DriverTeamTimeGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRbr-Renault1:37.258-15
25Fernando AlonsoFerrari1:37.6780.42016
36Felipe MassaFerrari1:37.8400.58217
42Mark WebberRbr-Renault1:38.0680.81013
54Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1:38.3261.06813
68Nico RosbergMercedes1:38.5801.32215
73Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1:38.7411.48313
87Michael SchumacherMercedes1:38.7991.54114
910Vitaly PetrovRenault1:38.8221.56417
109Nick HeidfeldRenault1:39.1131.85515
1114Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1:39.4112.15319
1217Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1:39.7782.52018
1315Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1:39.8232.56518
1416Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1:39.8482.59018
1518Sebastien BuemiStr-Ferrari1:39.8882.630
1611Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1:39.9872.729
1712Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1:40.0042.746
1819Jaime AlguersuariStr-Ferrari1:40.2392.981
1920Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1:41.2674.009
2021Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1:41.6904.432
2124Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1:42.5575.299
2223Vitantonio LiuzziHrt-Cosworth1:43.2435.985
2325Jerome d'AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1:43.3096.051
2422Narain KarthikeyanHrt-Cosworth1:44.6307.372