Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel takes third practice session at the Turkish Grand Prix: Formula One News
While the Red Bull Racing driver, Sebastian Vettel, got to pose as a mere spectator during the first and second practice sessions on Friday, the German driver sent across a strong signal of intent as he topped the timesheets in the third and final practice
session.
Sebastian Vettel had an accident in the first practice session which was heavily dominated by rain. He was forced to retire from the practice session and was unable to come back for the second stint as his car was still being repaired. However, despite the
lack of track time in the wet and dry conditions, the current World Champion set the fastest time in the final practice period with a 1 minute 26.037.
However, it wasn’t a walk in the park for the Red Bull from any stretch of the imagination. Mercedes GP was again seen to disrupt the provisional podium party. This time, in the shape of Michael Schumacher, who was merely a thousandth of a second slower
than Vettel at the end of the 60 minute session.
Mark Webber went third fastest, which further aided the Red Bull charge heading into qualifying. Nico Rosberg was just behind him – The top four drivers were effectively separated by less than half a second!
The McLarens entered the picture next. Jenson Button, after a 1 minute 26.578 second lap, took the 5th quickest time followed by Lewis Hamilton who was two tenths off the pace from his teammate.
Vitaly Petrov went 7th fastest in his Renault followed by the Ferrari duo with Fernando Alonso preceding his teammate Felipe Massa. Interestingly, both Ferraris did a total of 12 laps each, compared to the 17 by Sebastian Vettel. Perhaps, a ploy
to give the Scarlet engine some much needed rest before the full throttle showdown in qualifying on the same day.
Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi rounded off the top 10.
The stage was set for an interesting qualifying stint – Would Sebastian Vettel make it 4 consecutive poles and dominate qualifying yet again as seen so far this season?
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