Vettel benefits from team effort

Sebastian Vettel
12 April 2012

Sebastian Vettel returned to the head of the field in the final practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Vettel had on Friday called on Red Bull "to raise their game" due to a recent dip in form in the last two races, and they did so to such an extent they broke the overnight curfew for the first time this season. Teams are not allowed to work on cars between the hours of 2am-8am, but have four exemptions in case of exceptional circumstances.

Mechanics are understood to have made wholesale changes to the cars, finally finishing at 3am. Vettel hit the front in the dying stages of the hour-long session with a time of one minute 21.168secs, knocking Ferrari's Fernando Alonso down to second, the Spaniard a third of a second adrift.

Vettel's time, though, was marginally slower than that of the best set by Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren yesterday at the Hungaroring.

After topping the timesheet at the end of both 90-minute practice sessions Hamilton was forced to settle for seventh quickest today, 1.5secs off the pace.

Hamilton effectively blew both attempts at a quick lap towards the end after switching to the faster supersoft tyre.

Initially, the 26-year-old overshot turn one, and then the second time around he locked up into the same corner, flatspotting the front-right tyre, incidents he cannot afford to repeat later in qualifying.

Team-mate Jenson Button was again third quickest, just under half a second down, with Webber fourth, six-thousandths of a second behind the Briton who this weekend celebrates his 200th grands prix.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Mercedes' Nico Rosberg were also ahead of Hamilton, yet expect a different scenario come qualifying, with times expected to be below 80 seconds for the 2.722-mile circuit.

Seven-times champion Michael Schumacher, Vitaly Petrov in his Renault and Paul di Resta in his Force India completed the top 10. At the rear, both Virgin and Hispania Racing cars were considerably off the pace, with Vitantonio Liuzzi again slowest, 6.5secs down.

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