Abu Dhabi – Free Practice 3: Advantage Red Bull before qualifying

Last dress rehearsal before this afternoon’s qualifying session. The pole position contenders should emerge during this session.

The light turns green, and the two Lotus cars lead the way! Traffic is very heavy at the start of the session, mainly for reconnaissance laps. Romain Grosjean complains of vibrations on the front right over the radio. He will try to make up for the time lost yesterday. A golden weekend for Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, as their respective helmets show. Charles Pic is the first to set a time on the board, despite a mistake in his lap: 1:52.337. Van der Garde immediately beats it with 1:47.898.

After twenty minutes, Räikkönen and then Vettel set the first benchmark times sequentially with 1:43.949 for the Finn and 1:43.795 for the German. Everyone is running on mediums at the start of the session. Romain Grosjean is third, seven-tenths behind. Only thirteen cars have set a time. Neither the Mercedes nor the Ferraris have participated in the session yet, except for a few reconnaissance laps.

Just say it and the Silver Arrows make a liar out of us. Hamilton is second behind Vettel with a decent time: 1:43.872. Webber slots in between Vettel and Hamilton with 1:43.823 while Rosberg positions himself fourth.

The car is so bad, complains Adrian Sutil. He is currently 17th, more than two seconds behind Vettel. The Ferraris are not doing much better. Alonso is tenth, nearly a second behind, and Massa is fourteenth. The Spaniard is, however, aggressively attacking the curbs.

**After forty minutes**, Rosberg at 1:43.784 and then Hamilton a thousandth of his teammate surpass Vettel in the hierarchy. The German takes his position back, at 1:43.541. A mano a mano between the Silver Arrows and Vettel. Rosberg slightly improves, at 1:43.465.

It seems that on one lap and on mediums, the Mercedes cars are more than capable of competing with the Red Bull. Just as Vettel was going to improve, he encountered Bottas and Van der Garde, who considerably hindered him. He returns to the pits, while Bianchi is stationary after a big off-track excursion but without too much damage. A crane is on the track while only a yellow flag is being waved. An interesting statistic to note: all pole sitters have retired from the race in Abu Dhabi, except for Vettel in 2010. In fact, only two men have taken pole position here: Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.

With ten minutes to go, everyone leaves the pits on soft tires. The money-time of the session begins. Button sets the first benchmark time in these conditions: 1:41.956. Hamilton improves the time by nearly four tenths! Short-lived joy for the Brit, as he is soon overtaken by Sebastian Vettel: 1:41.351. In a second attempt, the Mercedes cars fall respectfully behind the Red Bull. Webber secures second place in the very last seconds of the session.

Red Bull – Mercedes, this should be the duel to watch during the qualifying session. Alonso is more than a second behind.

Free Practice 3 Classification of the 2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: