After finishing half a second behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in Practice Two, Red Bull opted to use one of their curfew exceptions on Friday night.And the extra hours, coupled with rising temperatures, paid off with Vettel setting the pace on Saturday morning.
The reigning World Champ clocked a 1:21.168 to finish 0.301s ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.
Jenson Button was third quickest.
Report: A warm start to the day with the track temperature already at 32'C as final practice got underway with Tonio Liuzzi leading the field out for their installation laps. Jerome D'Ambrosio posted the morning's first time, a 1:32.884.
The Virgin driver, though, was soon dropped as Nico Rosberg hit the front followed by Jenson Button. Michael Schumacher went third quickest. With the track rubbering up, more drivers ventured out including reigning World Champ Sebastian Vettel. However, he could only manage 17th place on his first lap.
The German went on to lead the way with a 1:22.021 while his team-mate Mark Webber took second place ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Problems for Rosberg, who climbed out of his car while his team worked on something around his seat area.
Halfway through the session it was Vettel leading with a 1:22.021, followed by Hamilton, Webber, Buton, Massa, Rosberg, Schumacher and Alonso.
Alonso improved to fourth place before being dropped as Rosberg, with his seat now sorted, climbed to second. Schumacher moved ahead of Massa and Vettel struggled to stay on the track. However, he wasn't the only one as several drivers ran wide, although with plenty of run-off area there were no accidents.
The final ten minutes saw the drivers take a run on the super soft tyres. Alonso jumped into the P1 slot, Massa took second place and then ran off the track on his next lap, Hamilton got it wrong at the first corner, Button didn't do much better on his out-lap, Jaime Alguersuari ran it wide, Button improved to second and Vettel hit the front with a 1:21.169.
Times
01. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m21.168s 17 laps
02. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m21.469s + 0.301s 13 laps
03. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m21.639s + 0.471s 14 laps
04. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m21.645s + 0.477s 18 laps
05. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m22.002s + 0.834s 14 laps
06. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m22.534s + 1.366s 22 laps
07. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m22.667s + 1.499s 14 laps
08. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m23.037s + 1.869s 19 laps
09. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m23.175s + 2.007s 19 laps
10. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m23.276s + 2.108s 18 laps
11. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m23.281s + 2.113s 13 laps
12. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m23.375s + 2.207s 18 laps
13. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m23.626s + 2.458s 25 laps
14. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m23.663s + 2.495s 17 laps
15. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m23.894s + 2.726s 17 laps
16. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m23.966s + 2.798s 18 laps
17. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m23.998s + 2.830s 15 laps
18. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m25.061s + 3.893s 19 laps
19. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m25.141s + 3.973s 20 laps
20. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m25.501s + 4.333s 20 laps
21. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m26.955s + 5.787s 20 laps
22. Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 1m26.991s + 5.823s 19 laps
23. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m27.174s + 6.006s 16 laps
24. Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m27.713s + 6.545s 20 laps
Source: Planet-F1
