It was worse for McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton, though, as he posted the
fastest time in the first two sectors at one stage and was poised to top the
timesheet with three minutes remaining.
But in the final chicane Hamilton found himself blocked by Kimi Raikkonen in
his Lotus, resulting in the 27-year-old finishing 16th, 1.610secs off the
pace.
Raikkonen ended up ninth, 0.027secs behind Button, with Nico Rosberg in his
Mercedes completing the top 10 and the only other driver within a second of
Vettel.
Felipe Massa completed a remarkable sequence as he wound up 11th after
finishing 12th and 11th in FP1 and FP2 respectively, with his times
1.003secs, 1.019secs and 1.011secs off the leader.
Despite sporting an upgrade package they hoped would propel them closer to the
top 10, the Force India duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta appear to
be struggling, the latter nearly 1.5secs down in 15th.
Lotus’ Romain Grosjean propped up the standings, albeit without setting a time
due to a fuel pressure problem that restricted him to nothing more than two
installation laps.
Third free practice times:
1. Sebastian Vettel (GER) Red Bull Racing 1min 23.168sec, 2. Pastor Maldonado
(VEN) Williams 1:23.336, 3. Kamui Kobayashi (JPN) Sauber 1:23.350, 4. Mark
Webber (AUS) Red Bull Racing 1:23.578, 5. Sergio Perez (MEX) Sauber
1:23.742, 6. Fernando Alonso (ESP) Scuderia Ferrari 1:23.807, 7. Jean-Eric
Vergne (FRA) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:23.833, 8. Jenson Button (GBR) McLaren
Mercedes 1:23.909, 9. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Lotus 1:23.936, 10. Nico Rosberg
(GER) Mercedes AMG 1:24.070, 11. Felipe Massa (BRA) Scuderia Ferrari
1:24.179, 12. Nico H|lkenberg (GER) Force India 1:24.323, 13. Daniel
Ricciardo (AUS) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:24.331, 14. Bruno Senna (BRA) Williams
1:24.409, 15. Paul di Resta (GBR) Force India 1:24.599, 16. Lewis Hamilton
(GBR) McLaren Mercedes 1:24.778, 17. Michael Schumacher (GER) Mercedes AMG
1:24.825, 18. Vitaly Petrov (RUS) Caterham 1:25.911, 19. Heikki Kovalainen
(FIN) Caterham 1:26.587, 20. Charles Pic (FRA) Marussia 1:27.469, 21. Timo
Glock (GER) Marussia 1:27.689, 22. Narain Karthikeyan (IND) HRT 1:28.207,
23. Pedro de la Rosa (ESP) HRT 1:28.373, 24. Romain Grosjean (FRA) Lotus