Vettel makes it three out of three in final practice

2011 Chinese GP third practice

Posted on

| Written by

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Shanghai, 2011

Sebastian Vettel remains the man to beat in Shanghai after final practice.

The Red Bull driver was fastest by 0.2 seconds ahead of the McLarens.

But team mate Mark Webber was only 15th after losing time in the final session due to problems with his Kinetic Energy Recovery System.

The McLarens of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton were second and third.

Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes took fourth ahead of the Ferraris, led by Fernando Alonso.

Vitaly Petrov, Adrian Sutil, Michael Schumacher and Paul di Resta completed the top ten.

One of few incidents in a largely quiet session came at the end of the hour, when Jerome d’Ambrosio’s Virgin lost part of its front wing at turn 13.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’34.96813
24Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’35.1760.20815
33Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’35.3730.40514
48Nico RosbergMercedes1’35.6770.70918
55Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’35.8180.85017
66Felipe MassaFerrari1’35.9711.00315
710Vitaly PetrovRenault1’36.0981.13018
814Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’36.1251.15715
97Michael SchumacherMercedes1’36.1411.17314
1015Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’36.3701.40219
119Nick HeidfeldRenault1’36.4041.43616
1216Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’36.5821.61418
1317Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’36.5961.62817
1418Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’36.7171.74916
152Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’36.8961.9285
1619Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’36.9531.98514
1711Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’37.0072.03920
1812Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’37.3042.33618
1920Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’38.1763.20812
2021Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’38.7393.77112
2124Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’39.9384.97017
2225Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’39.9985.03016
2323Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’40.5935.62517
2422Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1’40.8815.91318

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Total laps
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’38.7391’37.6881’34.96870
2Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’40.9401’37.9351’35.17668
3Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’40.8451’37.8541’35.37357
4Nico RosbergMercedes1’41.3611’37.9431’35.67775
5Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’41.4341’39.7791’35.81849
6Felipe MassaFerrari1’41.0461’38.5071’35.97176
7Vitaly PetrovRenault1’41.2311’38.8591’36.09865
8Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’38.7351’36.12550
9Michael SchumacherMercedes1’42.3011’38.1051’36.14166
10Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’41.6101’36.37037
11Nick HeidfeldRenault1’40.9871’38.8051’36.40447
12Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’43.7921’39.5381’36.58271
13Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’41.1891’39.9531’36.59667
14Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’41.3281’39.7711’36.71755
15Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’39.3541’39.3271’36.89665
16Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’39.8281’36.95339
17Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’41.9391’39.9251’37.00777
18Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’41.2221’39.6671’37.30475
19Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’41.5791’40.4761’38.17655
20Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’41.4821’38.73944
21Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’44.4381’44.7471’39.93840
22Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’44.0891’44.0081’39.99871
23Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’44.3591’43.8501’40.59338
24Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1’45.0191’42.9021’40.88166
25Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’41.49420
26Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’41.75220
27Luiz RaziaLotus-Cosworth1’44.54218

2011 Chinese Grand Prix

    Browse all 2011 Chinese Grand Prix articles

    Image © Red Bull/Getty images

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    19 comments on “Vettel makes it three out of three in final practice”

    1. Webber better hope that his KERS starts working soon!

      1. …and Vettel better be praying that his holds up.

        1. golden boy wont have an issue…

    2. Well it looks like Mercedes have finally sorted out there DRS problems and found a setup that suits the car and the drivers. Good to see.

      As for Red Bull/Vettel, what can you really say. Pole by about 4 tenths?

    3. i am personally happy to see Karthikeyan is on 3 tenths behind liuzzi now..not a full second like earlier..i think he is getting his bearings back after such a long time out of the sport..

      1. I still think Nahrain is a worthless (Well not to HRT obviously) annoying idiot, I preferred Sakon.

        1. I think ur from japan. How is sakon better then narain? Just give him a better car then u’ll knw. He is quick & got aggressive driving style. On his day he can even win a race or podium.

    4. Anyone for MSc spoiling the McLaren/Ferrari party??? Flying Nick doesn’t seem to be flying as yet…

    5. good to see force india back in top ten.

    6. I wish Hamilton snatchs pole from Vettel. I’m sick of Vettel dominant races. Mercedes is impressive. All problem is not pure performance but setting failure? Force India’s improvment is coincidence?

    7. When a driver can just go out and immediately set the fastest lap with a minim of effort, you just know that he isn’t even going at a hundred percent. He may just as well have a beer in hand as he sets very fast times.

      Ironically, I found it strange David Croft saying the Redbull wing nit flexing as much as last year, when at the very same moment, vettels front wing was shaving the hair off some ants on the race track. :-)

    8. They should start moving pole position according to how much faster than 2nd it is…

    9. Well, that’s my pole time prediction out the window! Nevermind…

      Hope Sauber get a better result than this shows in the race.

      1. Whoops! I forgot to enter my pole time. Damn.

      2. Since they were consistently more than a second slower in FP sessions this year, I decided to keep the pole second in the low 1:35s, but looks like I’m way off as well. Looks like getting the pole sitter right is the only thing that is working for me in the prediction championship so far.

    10. Vettel makes it three out of three in free practice 3 qualifying!

    11. Not sure I understand. The BBC says Webber is in 18th place (Jake Humphreys and separate interview with Webber), but he’s shown here as 15th.
      Did other drivers get penalties?

      1. These are FP3 times ;)

    Comments are closed.