Vettel tops practice 3 at Valencia

F1 Grand Prix, GP Europe, Valencia Street Circuit

Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets once again in the last free practice session ahead of this afternoon's qualifying for the European GP. The World Champion went quicker around the Valencian harbour than local hero Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.

After all drivers completed their installation laps, Nick Heidfeld was the first to top the timesheets and held that position until Fernando Alonso bettered his time on the primes.

Vettel's first few laps though was vastly quicker, and after completing 3 flying laps his quickest time was 0.9s faster than Alonso's. Mark Webber positioned himself in between the two.

20 minutes from the end of the session, Nico Rosberg took on the faster option tyres and immediately went on top of the timesheets.

Meanwhile Jarno Trulli had his engine cut on the end of one of his laps. He rolled back into the pits and didn't return to the track.

Alonso took charge again when he fitted the options, but in the end it was Vettel again. He could go even quicker as in the last minute he was ahead of his best laptime, but a yellow flag in the last sector required him to back off a bit.

The yellow situation was caused by Kobayashi going sideways into the last corner, flat spotting all 4 tyres and breaking off the front wing as he slid along the tyre wall. Damage was very limited however and the impact is not even worth talking about.