Vettel tops final practice session in Brazil

2011 Brazilian GP third practice

Posted on

| Written by

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Interlagos, 2011

Sebastian Vettel put Red Bull on top in the final practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Team mate Mark Webber was third fastest with the McLaren pair second and fourth.

The Renault drivers were out first, Bruno Senna heading the times briefly on his home track before pitting.

The next driver to head the times was Lewis Hamilton, before team mate Jenson Button beat his fastest lap on the harder tyres.

Sebastian Vettel edged Button with his last effort, going just five-hundredths of a second faster than the McLaren.

The Mercedes drivers were the first onto soft tyres, Rosberg getting within a tenth of a second of Vettel’s time.

Webber – still on the harder tyres – beat Vettel’s time by three-hundredths of a second, before Adrian Sutil hit the top of the times with a 1’13.113 on softs.

Fernando Alonso was the next driver to go fastest, lowering the mark to 1’12.765, before Hamilton eclipsed his time by a tenth of a second.

But it was a familiar sight at the end of the session as Vettel set the fastest time once again, then improved it to end up on a 1’12.460.

Button moved up to second, less than a tenth of a second behind the Red Bull, with Webber taking third on a 1’12.597, pushing Hamilton down to fourth.

Sutil’s time was good enough to put him sixth behind Alonso, and ahead of the two Mercedes. Michael Schumacher had a near-miss when he came across a dawdling Massa in the pit lane exit at the end of the session.

Massa ended up tenth behind Paul di Resta. But Sebastien Buemi was unable to set a time after a technical problem on his Toro Rosso.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’12.46021
24Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’12.5470.08719
32Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’12.5970.13721
43Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’12.6220.16215
55Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’12.7650.30517
614Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’13.1130.65322
78Nico RosbergMercedes1’13.2860.82621
87Michael SchumacherMercedes1’13.3930.93319
915Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’13.4190.95919
106Felipe MassaFerrari1’13.5831.12318
1110Vitaly PetrovRenault1’13.8381.37820
1211Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’14.2831.82319
1319Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’14.2961.83620
1416Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’14.3111.85124
1512Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’14.4541.99422
1617Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’14.5472.08724
179Bruno SennaRenault1’14.5502.09015
1821Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’15.8433.38324
1920Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’16.0263.56622
2025Jerome D’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’16.6164.15626
2123Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’17.1434.68323
2222Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’17.2964.83623
2324Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’17.9845.52423
2418Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-FerrariNo time3

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Sat/FriLaps
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’14.0251’13.5591’12.460-1.09990
2Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’13.8251’13.7871’12.547-1.2480
3Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’13.8111’13.5871’12.597-0.9988
4Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’13.9611’13.3921’12.622-0.7770
5Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’14.5411’13.5981’12.765-0.83378
6Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’14.1441’13.113-1.03163
7Nico RosbergMercedes1’15.3211’13.8721’13.286-0.58691
8Michael SchumacherMercedes1’15.1621’13.7231’13.393-0.3385
9Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’15.2411’14.8071’13.419-1.38898
10Felipe MassaFerrari1’14.5071’13.7501’13.583-0.16791
11Vitaly PetrovRenault1’14.8561’13.838-1.01858
12Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’15.6631’15.9031’14.283-1.3886
13Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’15.4681’15.3881’14.296-1.09290
14Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’15.7471’15.0191’14.311-0.708100
15Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’15.8361’15.6791’14.454-1.22592
16Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’15.9791’14.9701’14.547-0.42391
17Bruno SennaRenault1’15.7321’14.9311’14.550-0.38184
18Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’15.17828
19Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’15.26447
20Romain GrosjeanRenault1’15.54718
21Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’16.2981’15.843-0.45560
22Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’16.5141’16.3381’16.026-0.312103
23Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’16.05233
24Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’18.6531’18.0311’16.616-1.41594
25Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’18.4761’17.143-1.33365
26Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’18.9521’18.3671’17.296-1.07198
27Luiz RaziaLotus-Renault1’17.59531
28Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’18.1401’18.0511’17.984-0.06797
29Jan CharouzHRT-Cosworth1’19.57737

2011 Brazilian Grand Prix

    Browse all 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix articles

    Image © Red Bull/Getty images

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    11 comments on “Vettel tops final practice session in Brazil”

    1. Ah, Vettel!

    2. Vettel will not be on pole today!!!

      1. I actually wouldn’t mind another ‘best ever’ stat, I’ll be rooting for him today, which seems like a safe bet. :)

        1. Very likely, and as I feel sorry for his retirement last race I wouldn’t mind him being on pole (I’m used to it)!

    3. If it rains, I think we could see a McLaren or Ferrari on pole. No-one seems to know what the weather’s up to though!

      1. Or even a Force India or Mercedes. I hope it rains!

    4. Great job by Adrian Sutil! Mark Webber also seem to feel good at Interlagos. Hoping for an exiting wet race tomorrow, with a great battle for #1 between Vettel and Webber.

    5. sid_prasher (@)
      26th November 2011, 15:30

      Rain in the last race of the season will be fun!

      1. @sid_prasher It would be fun! Certainly a season finisher to remember.

    6. I still expect to see Vettel on pole.

    7. Is there a way to see a comparison b/w the use of DRS of different drivers? In the pole lap replay I saw that Vettel’s use od DRS was 100% perfect… Would be interesting to see how Sebastien compares to others.

    Comments are closed.