Rosberg takes the lead in FP3
Nico Rosberg broke McLaren's domination at Malaysia by topping the final practice ahead of qualifying. The Mercedes driver dominated the session and was the only German below 1m 37s, more than 4 tenths faster than nearest competitor Sebastian Vettel.
The beginning of the session was remarkably quiet as the teams were waiting for turn 9 in particular to dry up after a brief shower.
Further on, both Maldonado and Senna topped the times for a short period as they demonstrated the pace of the Williams. Lewis Hamilton meanwhile awaited the right moment to take to the track but a mistake caused him to end up in the gravel trap on his first flying lap.
Ferrari meanwhile were still nowhere near the top runners, with Alonso in 13th and Massa down in 18th position, ahead only of Caterham, Murussia and HRT.
Results
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes Amg | 1:36.877 | - | 16 |
| 2 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:37.320 | 0.443 | 15 |
| 3 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:37.338 | 0.461 | 12 |
| 4 | 9 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 1:37.356 | 0.479 | 13 |
| 5 | 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:37.382 | 0.505 | 13 |
| 6 | 3 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:37.404 | 0.527 | 12 |
| 7 | 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:37.455 | 0.578 | 13 |
| 8 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes Amg | 1:37.663 | 0.786 | 15 |
| 9 | 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:37.776 | 0.899 | 8 |
| 10 | 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:37.977 | 1.100 | 17 |
| 11 | 19 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 1:38.091 | 1.214 | 20 |
| 12 | 15 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:38.178 | 1.301 | 15 |
| 13 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:38.246 | 1.369 | 17 |
| 14 | 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:38.285 | 1.408 | 16 |
| 15 | 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Str-Ferrari | 1:38.423 | 1.546 | 13 |
| 16 | 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Str-Ferrari | 1:38.640 | 1.763 | 11 |
| 17 | 11 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:38.794 | 1.917 | 18 |
| 18 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:39.209 | 2.332 | 16 |
| 19 | 21 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1:39.704 | 2.827 | 15 |
| 20 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1:40.189 | 3.312 | 14 |
| 21 | 25 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:41.901 | 5.024 | 14 |
| 22 | 24 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:42.007 | 5.130 | 14 |
| 23 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | Hrt-Cosworth | 1:42.464 | 5.587 | 14 |
| 24 | 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | Hrt-Cosworth | 1:43.378 | 6.501 | 17 |
