India – Free Practice 3: Vettel continues his solo run

It is under a cloudy sky that the final free practice session of the Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit is set to begin. The track temperature is 35°C and the air temperature is 28°C. The wind is similar to yesterday morning.

Although this practice session was scheduled to start at 11 a.m. local time, shortly before the session was due to begin, race control announced a 15-minute delay due to visibility problems preventing the medical helicopter from taking off. As a result of this delay, race control consequently decided to shorten the session duration from one hour to 45 minutes.

Shortly after, the race management announced a new delay of 15 minutes before revising its position, announcing only an additional 5-minute delay for a session duration of 40 minutes.

Esteban Gutiérrez is the first to hit the track ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, Jean-Eric Vergne, and Mark Webber. With the session shortened by 20 minutes, all drivers take to the track without delay to complete an installation lap to ensure everything is functioning well on their cars or to begin their stints.

While Gutiérrez sets the first reference time, Mark Webber quickly asserts his dominance with a lap of 1:27.879. This time is improved by Felipe Massa and then by Fernando Alonso by a few thousandths, but the Australian takes back his lead by 6 tenths.

After 10 minutes, Webber leads ahead of Alonso, Massa, Rosberg, and Pérez. The Lotus and Marussia drivers are just starting their stints while Pastor Maldonado hits the track for the first time in the session. As Pérez takes the lead, Sebastian Vettel is the first to hit the track on soft tires. The German driver takes the lead with almost a 1.7-second advantage over Alonso.

Shortly before mid-session, Nico Hülkenberg returns to the pits and hits one of his mechanics as he passes him, but it seems to be more of a scare than anything serious. Max Chilton, on the track, spins in one of the circuit’s fast corners before returning to the pits.

Felipe Massa tests the softs while most of the drivers are in the pits with a little more than 15 minutes left in the session. Track activity resumes with the Lotus drivers and Adrian Sutil exiting the pits, all three on softs.

Ten minutes from the end, there’s a flurry of activity at the front of Lewis Hamilton’s and Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes cars to adjust settings while Red Bull seems to be performing race simulations with fuel and soft tires. Red Bull is not the only team doing this; the other leading teams are also testing the soft tires with fuel to see how it will play out at the start of the race.

A few seconds from the end, Jenson Button improves his time on softs by setting the 9th fastest lap. Hamilton also improves after having to abort his fast lap the previous lap after being hindered by Grosjean in turn 10 following the French driver’s wide exit.

At the chequered flag, it’s Sebastian Vettel who sets the fastest time, more than half a second ahead of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso.

Free Practice 3 Results of the 2013 Indian Grand Prix: