Ferrari seem to have found some pace since free practice on Friday with Fernando Alonso setting the pace in Saturday’s one hour practice session with a 1:54.099.
Nico Rosberg continued in good form managing to get within 0.269 seconds of Alonso’s Ferrari.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber had a better session on Saturday when he managed to get over Friday’s problems and set a 1.54.500 – third quickest.
Timo Glock had a hairy moment on his fourth lap when a wheel nut, followed by a wheel, came loose from his Virgin race-car around turn 6 – quick thinking from Bruno Senna made sure that the Brazillian narrowly missed the loose Bridgestone.
McLaren seemed to be off the pace with Button and Hamilton only managing 7th and 12th quickest respectively.
Hamilton’s session did, however, came to end early when his MP4-25’s left front brake duct faultered with 15 minutes of the session remaining meaning the Brit couldn’t do any low-fuel runs.
Hispania’s Karun Chandhok will not take place in this weekends race after not being able to turn a wheel in any of the three practice sessions – sporting regulations stipulate that a driver must do at least one lap in Saturday free practice in order to be allowed to qualify.
Times for Saturday free practice:
| 01 | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1:54.099 | 14 |
| 02 | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1.54.368 | 13 |
| 03 | M. Webber | Red Bull | 1:54.500 | 15 |
| 04 | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:54.533 | 13 |
| 05 | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:54.646 | 16 |
| 06 | F. Massa | Ferrari | 1:54.739 | 14 |
| 07 | J. Button | McLaren | 1:55.000 | 14 |
| 08 | R. Kubica | Renault | 1:55.331 | 15 |
| 09 | V. Liuzzi | Force India | 1:55.432 | 11 |
| 10 | N. Hulkenberg | Williams | 1:55.461 | 13 |
| 11 | A. Sutil | Force India | 1:55.521 | 13 |
| 12 | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 1:55.860 | 8 |
| 13 | P. De La Rosa | Sauber | 1:56.063 | 14 |
| 14 | R. Barrichello | Williams | 1:56.259 | 15 |
| 15 | S. Buemi | Toro Rosso | 1:56.295 | 17 |
| 16 | J. Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | 1:56.504 | 16 |
| 17 | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 1:56.530 | 14 |
| 18 | V. Petrov | Renault | 1:56.811 | 16 |
| 19 | T. Glock | Virgin | 1:59.173 | 10 |
| 20 | H. Kovalainen | Lotus | 1:59.789 | 15 |
| 21 | J. Trulli | Lotus | 2:01.259 | 5 |
| 22 | B. Senna | Hispania | 2:04.001 | 11 |
| 23 | L. Di Grassi | Virgin | No Time | 2 |
| 24 | K. Chandhok | Hispania | No Time | 0 |
