Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel returned from his Friday crash to keep Michael Schumacher off the top of the timesheets by the slimmest of margins in final Turkish Grand Prix practice on Saturday.
The 23-year-old Red Bull driver pipped his illustrious Mercedes rival by just 0.001 of a second as clear blue skies and sunshine replaced the previous days’ rain at the anti-clockwise Istanbul Park circuit.
Red Bull’s Australian Mark Webber was third quickest behind the two Germans, followed by Schumacher’s team mate Nico Rosberg.
McLaren’s Jenson Button, who had been fastest on Friday while Vettel watched as a spectator after his heavy morning crash on the exit to a slippery turn eight, lapped fifth fastest ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton. Yahoo! Eurosport UK
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F1 Standings Ahead of Turkish Grand Prix
Formula 1: Fernando Alonso Fastest in First Practice at Istanbul Park
Formula 1: Turkish Grand Prix - First Practice Results
Formula 1: Jenson Button Fastest in Second Practice at Istanbul Park
Formula 1: Turkish Grand Prix - Second Practice Results
Formula 1: Sebastian Vettel Fastest in Final Practice at Istanbul Park
Behind Vitaly Petrov in seventh were the two Ferraris, the Italian squad’s raft of updates yet to produce the kind of step forward they had been expecting.
Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa had both taken brief turns at the top when the field switch to soft tyres but drifted over 0.7s off the pace in the final reckoning, although they only completed 12 laps apiece.
Alonso was forced to abandon one of his soft tyre runs with nine minutes to go when his Ferrari got stuck in sixth gear, following on from the hydraulic problems that cost him track time on Friday.
Sebastien Buemi took 10th for Toro Rosso just ahead of the impressive Sergio Perez (Sauber), while Pastor Maldonado gave the embattled Williams team some encouragement by moving up to 12th ahead of the two Force Indias. ITV
Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired 1 1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 01:26.0 2 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 01:26.0 3 2 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 01:26.4 4 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 01:26.4 5 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 01:26.6 6 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 01:26.7 7 10 Vitaly Petrov Renault 01:26.8 8 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 01:26.8 9 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 01:26.9 10 18 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 01:27.1 11 17 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 01:27.1 12 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 01:27.3 13 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 01:27.3 14 9 Nick Heidfeld Renault 01:27.4 15 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 01:27.5 16 15 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 01:27.6 17 19 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 01:27.7 18 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 01:28.0 19 20 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 01:28.9 20 21 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 01:29.7 21 25 Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 01:31.1 22 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 01:31.2 23 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 01:31.4 24 22 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 01:32.0

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