Vettel on top in final Brazil practice

F1 Grand Prix, GP Brazil, Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Interlagos

Sebastian Vettel put Red Bull back in charge thanks to setting a 1:12.547 in the final minutes of the third practice session. Jenson Button was second fastest, with the top 5 seperated only by 0.3s, promising a close fight for pole in qualifying.

Following the usual installation laps, Lotus Renault GP are quickly on their way to continue lapping the Interlagos circuit. The team have already done an awful lot of laps on Friday as well.

10 minutes later a lot of cars join the action, with first the McLaren's posting top times, followed by the Red Bulls improving on them 2 minutes later. Vettel hereby goes fastest on the medium tyre, faster than Lewis Hamilton's fastest time in FP2, set on the softer tyres.

At the same time Sebastian Buemi was set to take to the track, but halfway through the pitlane came to a halt. His unexpected stop triggered mechanics to run down the pitlane to go and pull the car back into the team's own box. Investigations in the pits revealed his car had a hydraulic leak.

Bruno Senna on the other hand came in after telemetry showed something amiss on the right hand side of his engine.

15 minutes from the end drivers start to come out for a performance run on the softer tyre. Adrian Sutil immediately puts his car on top of the timesheet before returning back to the pits. Alonso improves on that three minutes later after using the clear track to have aa go on the option tyres himself. Felipe Massa attempts the same but is badly delayed by a Virgin car. Massa has been looking for pace since the very first lap in FP1 and will not at all be happy with this setback.

Vettel in the end set the fastest time, just ahad of Jenson Button, teammate Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton. Even Fernando Alonso in 5th place is only 0.3s down on the fastest time, hence setting a perfect scene for qualifying.