Final practice - Vettel makes it three from three 22 Sep 2012
Sebastian Vettel’s domination of practice for the 2012 Formula 1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix was completed this evening when he took his Red Bull round the Marina Bay Street Circuit 0.325s faster than his nearest challenger, Lewis Hamilton.
The German lapped in 1m 47.947s on Pirelli’s super-soft tyres, with Hamilton’s response for McLaren stopping the clocks in 1m 48.272s. Nobody else got a chance to make decent runs, as the session was stopped with 2m 26s left after Caterham’s Vitaly Petrov tapped a wall, then hit it hard further on when his rear suspension broke. The second contact spun him across the road, and though he managed to creep into the pit lane he could go no further.
Fernando Alonso was third fastest for Ferrari, on 1m 48.623s, with Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen on his tail with 1m 48.859s and 1m 48.865s.
Felipe Massa was sixth in the second Ferrari on 1m 49.458s, with a disappointed Paul di Resta in seventh on 1m 49.684s in the second Force India. Nico Rosberg pushed his Mercedes to eighth with 1m 49.699s, just ahead of on-form Bruno Senna who lapped his Williams in 1m 49.715s. Michael Schumacher completed the top 10 with 1m 49.981s for Mercedes.
Mark Webber should have been up there, but clobbered a wall when lying fourth and damaged the right-rear suspension of his Red Bull while trying to improve in 1m 50.110s. Jenson Button also failed to get the lap in, and was 12th in the second McLaren with 1m 50.524s. Right behind came Daniel Ricciardo for Toro Rosso on 1m 50.664s, Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi on 1m 50.777s and Lotus’s Romain Grosjean on 1m 50.840s.
Pastor Maldonado was 16th on 1m 51.012s for Williams from Jean-Eric Vergne on 1m 51.059s in the second Toro Rosso. Sergio Perez was only 18th after hitting the same wall as Webber just after he’d lapped his Sauber in 1m 51.272s.
Charles Pic put the improved Marussia ahead of Caterham again, with an excellent lap of 1m 52.290s, with Petrov next on 1m 53.781s ahead of team mate Heikki Kovalainen on 1m 54.326s. The troubled Finn had the HRTs of Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa, and Timo Glock’s Marussia for company, the latter stopping early in the hour with suspected throttle sensor problems.
The Indian recorded 1m 54.421s from the German’s 1m 54.630s and the Spaniard’s 1m 54.875s. De la Rosa will get a five-place grid penalty this afternoon, after HRT had to replace his F112’s gearbox overnight.
The session confirmed Red Bull’s superior pace, but Petrov’s accident means that the order behind the reigning world champion will only truly become clear after qualifying.
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