• Australian Grand Prix Free Practice 3

Webber fastest on home turf

Traffic was a problem in FP3 © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Australian Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso
• |
• Michael Schumacher
• |
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Ferrari
• |
• Mercedes
• |
• Red Bull

The final free practice session set the scene for a fascinating qualifying session at the Australian Grand Prix, with home hero Mark Webber setting the fastest time.

Three different cars made up the top three places, with Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari and Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes just two tenths off Webber's time of 1:24.719 in the Red Bull. His team-mate Sebastian Vettel was fourth fastest and four tenths adrift, although a yellow flag in the final stages of the session put a hold on any last-gasp, low-fuel efforts.

Jenson Button was the fastest of the two McLarens, 0.680 off Webber but a tenth ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Adrian Sutil snuck into the top eight for Force India while Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari failed to clock a hot lap of any merit on the soft tyres. Hamilton and Massa both looked quick when running on the harder tyres, so it would not be surprising if they were holding something back for qualifying.

One talking point ahead of qualifying will be the amount of traffic on track when all 24 cars are out at once. It is unlikely to cause a major upset as the new teams will almost certainly make up six of the seven cars to drop out in the first session of qualifying. Nonetheless there were some very close shaves as faster cars lapped slower ones, and at some points drivers were coming to a near standstill at the penultimate corner to give themselves some space for a quick lap.

The midfield is shaping up as expected with the Force Indias looking fast and the Renault of Robert Kubica showing some impressive pace, even if he didn't set a brilliant lap towards the end of the session. Rubens Barrichello also looks quick in the Williams, while Sebastien Buemi showed form in the Toro Rosso despite being held up by slower cars on a number of occasions.

At the back of the grid HRT's woes look set to continue as both cars pulled up with faults during the session. Karun Chandhok completed 11 laps while Bruno Senna managed just eight. Both were around ten seconds off the pace of the front runners. Lotus, in particular Heikki Kovalainen, appears to have got the march on Virgin and the Finn's best lap time was only 2.7 seconds shy of Pedro de la Rosa's effort in the Sauber. But with Lotus looking like the only team able to make it to chequered flag on Suday, the lap times will be of little significance.

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