Fernando Alonso takes his place

Still under bright sunshine and strong heat (32°C in the air, 42°C on the track), the third free practice session begins to allow the teams to prepare for qualifying scheduled for three hours later (12 p.m. , French time). During the first minutes, the track is only used for installation laps.

After a first quarter of an hour, the pilots Red Bull inaugurate the timesheet and it is Sebastian Vettel who did the best, beating the best time of the weekend in 1:55??178. It doesn't take much time for Felipe Massa (Ferrari) to erase it, passing under the next second (1?54??761).

Meanwhile, the spectacle of the new stables is in full swing. Karun Chandhok (HRT) waits patiently for a car that can run, and Timo Glock (Virgin) returns to his pit on three wheels. Later, his engineers explained to the German that his front left wheel was poorly tightened due to the gun's failure. Or when everything starts well?

At the front, many drivers improved their times and, as the end of the session approached, Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) strikes a major blow by improving his teammate's time by almost seven tenths (1:54:099). Until Jenson Button (McLaren), only seven drivers are in the same second, gaps which have widened compared to the 2009 season, where the level was relatively homogeneous.

Before the qualifying session, this is a first encouraging sign for Ferrari, present at the forefront. As Mercedes and Red Bull since, behind Fernando Alonso, we find Nico Rosberg (Mercedes, 1?54??368), Mark Webber (Red Bull, 1?54??500) and Michael Schumacher (Mercedes, 1?54??533).

During this third free practice session, the cars ran with a very low fuel tank in order to prepare for the qualifying practice session. However, in qualifying, the cars would still have to be 15 kg lighter to run with 10 kg of fuel on board, and the drivers should therefore still be able to lower the time.