Lewis Hamilton has ensured that McLaren has locked out all three practice sessions in Abu Dhabi, setting the pace at Yas Marina ahead of qualifying on Saturday. The 2009 pole-sitter led the way from Champion Sebastian Vettel, with Mark Webber and Jenson Button completing the top four from Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.
This afternoon’s session, prior to nightfall for qualifying, was chiefly incident-free although there were pit lane problems for two drivers; Jarno Trulli was consigned to his garage after just a single lap, due to Lotus gearbox problems, whereas Rubens Barrichello’s Williams suffered a huge oil leak following its engine failure of Friday and goes into qualifying with a real danger of Q1 elimination.
In the midfield, a closely-bunched pack consists of the Renault, Sauber and Toro Rosso drivers, with Pastor Maldonado likely to qualify 17th judging by his current pace. Nico Rosberg and both Force Indias squeezed into the top ten, as did Felipe Massa who has now reverted to an older front wing after Ferrari found themselves scratching heads over why Friday’s modified new version was still hitting the ground.
There was a close call between Hamilton and Michael Schumacher at Turn 11, with the McLaren on the inside line as the Mercedes cut across the run-off area after contact was narrowly avoided. Alonso also continued to struggle for grip, at one point taking too much kerb and running wide out of Turn 6.
An entertaining battle for the top spot developed over the final five minutes of the hour-long period, with Webber holding it before Hamilton registered the first sub-1:39.000 lap time of the weekend; the Englishman then improved on this by two tenths of a second. Once again, Button was less pleased with his chassis and could only move to within half a second of his team-mate’s best effort.
In the closing stages, there was a near-miss between the two Red Bulls, with Webber – on a flying lap – having to swerve around Vettel, who was weaving to warm his tyres up on the approach to the final corner.
Abu Dhabi qualifying begins at 5pm local time (GMT +4) and can also be tracked through the GPUpdate.net live report
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:38.976 | 17 |
| 2. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:39.403 | 18 |
| 3. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:39.427 | 18 |
| 4. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:39.429 | 16 |
| 5. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:39.661 | 16 |
| 6. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:40.135 | 19 |
| 7. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:40.183 | 18 |
| 8. | A. Sutil | Force India | 01:40.429 | 21 |
| 9. | P. di Resta | Force India | 01:40.511 | 19 |
| 10. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 01:40.938 | 18 |
| Full results | ||||
| Lewis Hamilton | |||
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