Vettel stays ahead in final practice

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Belgium, Circuit de Spa-Francorchampsbe

During a dry final practice session ahead of qualifying, Sebastian Vettel posted the best time once again, edging out Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber, thanks to better speed in sectors 1 and 3.

The final practice session at Spa was dry, but with rain threatening to come in, many drivers started their sessions early to at least get a few laps in.

Nearly everybody was focusing on fairly short runs on the harder tyre, with nobody seen running the harder compound during the first 45 minutes.

The session included some hot moments however for Massa and Di Resta at turn 9 as they both faced similar oversteer moments and nearly ended up in the tyre wall on the outside of the turn.

Lewis Hamilton on the other hand was struggling a bit with braking into the bussstop chicane, one spinning his car before returning to the pitlane. A bit later Adrian Sutil demonstrated what brake balance towards the rear can do, as he locked up both front wheels while braking for La Source, only narrowly managing to stay out of the tyre wall.

10 minutes from the end cars are finally fitted with the white walled medium tyres. The first is Di Resta, but Alonso soon improved on that, completing a lap in 1:48.327, a tenth faster than his best in FP3 of 2012 during which he was fastest.

Webber crossed the line a minute later to end up a tenth slower than Alonso while Vettel, even though being slower in S2 went fastest in the final minutes, a mere tenth up on the fastest Ferrari. Interesting is Jean-Eric Vergne's performance, as his continued strong performance got him a 4th quickest time during this session.

Results

Pos.No.DriverTeamTimeGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull Racing-Renault1:48.327-16
23Fernando AlonsoFerrari1:48.4320.10514
32Mark WebberRed Bull Racing-Renault1:48.5330.20616
418Jean-Eric VergneStr-Ferrari1:48.7760.44915
54Felipe MassaFerrari1:48.7880.46115
65Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1:48.8820.55513
712Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1:48.9300.60318
88Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1:48.9670.64014
99Nico RosbergMercedes1:48.9930.66616
107Kimi RäikkönenLotus-Renault1:49.0080.68117
1119Daniel RicciardoStr-Ferrari1:49.0350.70815
1210Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:49.0460.71917
1315Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1:49.1220.79515
1417Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1:49.1770.85015
1514Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1:49.2260.89914
166Sergio PerezMcLaren-Mercedes1:49.4171.09014
1711Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1:49.4781.15119
1816Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1:50.4182.09114
1920Charles PicCaterham-Renault1:51.4163.08915
2021Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1:51.8003.47318
2122Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1:52.2213.89417
2223Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1:53.5075.18018