Di Resta finished 0.271 secs behind Hamilton and was followed by Felipe Massa
in his Ferrari, the Brazilian looking strong for once, and the second
McLaren of Jenson Button, 0.416secs down.
The places from sixth to 10th were filled by five different marques courtesy
of Nico Rosberg for Mercedes, Sauber’s Sergio Perez, the Lotus of Kimi
Raikkonen, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Williams’ Pastor Maldonado.
Noticeably, there was no Red Bull in the top 10, with Mark Webber 11th and
Sebastian Vettel 12th, the latter causing concern late on when he pulled
over his car as it lost power, claiming over the team radio he had “no
battery”.
Overall, the top 14 were remarkably covered by under a second, with Bruno
Senna in his Williams and Michael Schumacher for Mercedes 13th and 14th, the
latter 0.985secs adrift.
Jerome D’Ambrosio, standing in for the banned Romain Grosjean this weekend
after the Frenchman caused a first corner pile-up in last Sunday’s Belgian
Grand Prix, was a disappointing 17th and 1.395secs back.
Bringing up the rear were again the HRT pair, but this time with Narain
Karthikeyan ahead of Pedro de la Rosa, the latter 3.8secs off the pace.
Meanwhile, Di Resta’s hopes of a points-scoring finish in tomorrow’s race are
under threat from a grid penalty.
After today’s qualifying, the Force India driver will move back five places
for an unscheduled gearbox change.
A gearbox is supposed to last five consecutive races under FIA regulations,
but the team have been forced to place a new one in Di Resta’s car within
that
3rd and Final Free Practice Session: 1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain)
McLaren 1:24.578 2. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 1:24.579 3. Paul Di
Resta (Britain) Force India – Mercedes 1:24.849 4. Felipe Massa (Brazil)
Ferrari 1:24.909 5. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 1:24.994 6. Nico Rosberg
(Germany) Mercedes 1:25.036 7. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Sauber – Ferrari
1:25.160 8. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Lotus – Renault 1:25.255 9. Nico
Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India – Mercedes 1:25.289 10. Pastor Maldonado
(Venezuela) Williams – Renault 1:25.383 11. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull
– Renault 1:25.389 12. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull – Renault 1:25.406
13. Bruno Senna (Brazil) Williams – Renault 1:25.461 14. Michael Schumacher
(Germany) Mercedes 1:25.563 15. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Sauber – Ferrari
1:25.689 16. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Toro Rosso – Ferrari 1:25.706 17.
Jerome d’Ambrosio (Belgium) Lotus – Renault 1:25.973 18. Jean-Eric Vergne
(France) Toro Rosso – Ferrari 1:26.003 19. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland)
Caterham – Renault 1:26.657 20. Vitaly Petrov (Russia) Caterham – Renault
1:27.267 21. Charles Pic (France) Marussia – Cosworth 1:27.454 22. Timo
Glock (Germany) Marussia – Cosworth 1:27.728 23. Narain Karthikeyan (India)
HRT – Cosworth 1:28.035 24. Pedro de la Rosa (Spain) HRT – Cosworth 1:28.384