Mark Webber once again showed the F1 world that he has what it takes to compete at the front as he set the quickest time in the final free practice session in Melbourne, a 1:24.719.
The lap came after a series of quick laps which saw the local favourite outpace Fernando Alonso by 0.201s.
Michael Schumacher managed to take third place, once again, showing fans that he is able to beat team-mate, Nico Rosberg. The 41-year old was just 0.244s off the pace thus proving that the magic is still there.
The second Red Bull car, belonging to Sebastian Vettel, was a huge 0.4s off the pace but sat comfortably in fourth with the Mercedes sister-car of Nico Rosberg a further 0.2s down.
The Friday pace-setters, McLaren, seemed to struggle a bit today, however fuel could have played it’s part. The current world champion managed a 1:25.399 to put himself 6th overall, Hamilton was 0.1s down on Button and sits 7th.
A worrying session for Felipe Massa, although his early pace suggested something positive could come out of this session a 1:25.549 means that the Brazilian sits way back in 9th – more than 8-tenths off the pace.
Going into qualifying, it appears that the harder tyre allows for quicker pace. The top three all managed their sub-1:25 times on the harder of the two compounds.
Times for Saturday final practice:
| 01 | Webber | Red Bull | 1:24.719 | 16 |
| 02 | Alonso | Ferrari | 1:24.929 | 19 |
| 03 | Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:24.963 | 17 |
| 04 | Vettel | Red Bull | 1:25.122 | 19 |
| 05 | Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:25.366 | 16 |
| 06 | Button | McLaren | 1:25.399 | 20 |
| 07 | Hamilton | McLaren | 1:25.505 | 14 |
| 08 | Sutil | Force India | 1:25.525 | 18 |
| 09 | Massa | Ferrari | 1:25.549 | 20 |
| 10 | Liuzzi | Force India | 1:25.782 | 19 |
| 11 | Barrichello | Williams | 1:25.852 | 17 |
| 12 | Buemi | Toro Rosso | 1:26.104 | 21 |
| 13 | Kubica | Renault | 1:26.184 | 21 |
| 14 | Kobayashi | Sauber | 1:26.275 | 21 |
| 15 | Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | 1:26.368 | 17 |
| 16 | Petrov | Renault | 1:26.661 | 19 |
| 17 | Hulkenberg | Williams | 1:26.804 | 19 |
| 18 | de la Rosa | Sauber | 1:26.818 | 18 |
| 19 | Kovalainen | Lotus | 1:29.539 | 19 |
| 20 | Trulli | Lotus | 1:29.800 | 16 |
| 21 | di Grassi | Virgin | 1:30.800 | 18 |
| 22 | Glock | Virgin | 1:31.114 | 12 |
| 23 | Chandhok | HRT | 1:34.334 | 11 |
| 24 | Senna | HRT | 1:36.649 | 8 |
All timing unofficial
Discussion about this post