• Brazilian Grand Prix - FP3

Vettel edges out Button in FP3

Sebastian Vettel pipped Jenson Button by less than 0.1s © Getty Images

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• Race:
• Brazilian Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Jenson Button
• |
• Sebastian Vettel
• |
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• McLaren
• |
• Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of final practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix as the weather stayed dry ahead of qualifying.

The times were once again very close, with Vettel's 1:12.460 being just 0.087s quicker than Jenson Button in the McLaren. Mark Webber was third a further 0.050s back, with Lewis Hamilton fourth on a 1:12.622. Fernando Alonso in fifth was still just 0.305s slower than Vettel but then there was a slight gap to Adrian Sutil, 0.653s off the pace but encouraging Force India by beating both Mercedes.

With rain a distinct possibility this afternoon the session got off to a busy start with Kamui Kobayashi leading out a number of cars eager to get installation laps sorted. Fernando Alonso lost some time again, with a DRS problem confining him to the garage for the majority of the first half of the session after yesterday's engine troubles, but he recovered to set a competitive soft tyre lap.

While Sutil's time put him quickest with 10 minutes to go, he was soon knocked down as Red Bull and McLaren traded fastest laps. Beating Nico Rosberg in seventh and Michael Schumacher in eighth was a good achievement but both Mercedes set their times earlier in the session before the track was at its best. Paul di Resta matched Schumacher's pace, while Felipe Massa seemed unhappy with the balance of his Ferrari as he only managed the 10th fastest time - 1.1s slower than Vettel.

In a session with little major incident, Sebastien Buemi was the only driver to have serious trouble, crawling up the hill towards the pit lane after his installation lap and slowly making his way back to the garage. It turned out to be a hydraulic leak and meant he was unable to complete any further running. There was almost a collision at the end of the session too as Schumacher came across a slow moving Massa in the pit lane and had to take to the grass to avoid the Ferrari.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.