Button, quickest overall on Friday, had completed 21 laps of information
gathering on high fuel and the harder of the two Pirelli tyre compounds, the
medium.
But just as Button emerged on the faster soft tyre and poised to push himself
up the timesheet, the very light rain initially thwarted his run from which
there was no recovery once the heavens eventually opened.
Behind the leading duo, Sauber’s Sergio Perez again underlined his consistency
this weekend with the third quickest time, 0.188secs behind Alonso.
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth for Lotus, followed by Red Bull duo Mark Webber and
reigning champion Sebastian Vettel, both just over four tenths of a second
adrift.
Webber, however, like Lotus’ Romain Grosjean and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes,
faces a five-place grid penalty after the team confirmed today the
Australian’s car has also required a new gearbox.
Williams’ Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna finished seventh and 10th,
sandwiching Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and second Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi.
Grosjean was 11th and the last of those to finish within a second of Alonso,
the Frenchman followed by Force India pair Nico Hulkenberg and Paul Di
Resta.
For Mercedes there is the threat of a potentially difficult weekend looming if
their form in the session was anything to go by.
Michael Schumacher, who crashed at the end of FP2 yesterday, was down in 15th,
with Rosberg 17th, the duo 1.252secs and 1.477secs behind Alonso
respectively.