European GP. FP3 Report. Adrian Sutil was the surprise session-topper in the final practice session at Valencia, the Force India driver enjoying his moment of glory as most of the hour was wiped out by an engine failure for title contender Sebastian Vettel. The session was marred by the aftereffects of Vettel's Red Bull car mangling it's Renault engine after half of the session. The German coasted to stop at the side of the track, but managed to drop a huge line of oil on the racing line before he did so, and the session was red-flagged while the marshals placed several tonnes of cement dust on the slippery problem.
With the clock still running even during the stoppage, almost half of the session was lost, and at the time, Sutil was clear in front. Although a final five minute run after the dust was placed down saw him deposed by Kazuki Nakajima, the German pulled out one final flying lap to finish top of the pile, from the Williams of Nakajima and the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen.
The perennial practice session form man Nico Rosberg ended the session in 5th, with Giancarlo Fisichella rounding out a happy session for Force India in 6th.
The order at the end of the session was hardly indicative of the expected running order. The early stages had been dominated by Lewis Hamilton in the short wheelbase McLaren, but he slipped to 8th place by the end, one place behind Jenson Button, who kept up Brawn's return to form earlier by sitting second behind Hamilton in the early stages.
The rest of the top ten was completed by Jarno Trulli and rookie runner Romain Grosjean, who recovered from an early spin to finish the session clear of his illustrious team mate Fernando Alonso.
Meanwhile, Red Bull had a miserable session. Vettel was forced to sit most of it out after his failure, while Mark Webber never looked on the pace, and finished just one place ahead of the car-less Vettel in 17th. The two of them were ahead of only rookie Jaime Alguersuari and the willfully slow Luca Badoer by the end of the hour.
Elsewhere, the session had seen a few incidents before Vettel ruined everything. Alonso managed a couple of offs, while Vettel himself ran onto a run-off area early on.
| FP3 Times | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Laps |
| 1 | Adrian Sutil | Force India - Mercedes | 1:39.143 | 12 |
| 2 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams - Toyota | 1:39.247 | 12 |
| 3 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:39.513 | 12 |
| 4 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren - Mercedes | 1:39.553 | 8 |
| 5 | Nico Rosberg | Williams - Toyota | 1:39.732 | 11 |
| 6 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India - Mercedes | 1:39.764 | 12 |
| 7 | Jenson Button | Brawn - Mercedes | 1:39.883 | 10 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren - Mercedes | 1:39.950 | 12 |
| 9 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:40.017 | 11 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Renault | 1:40.088 | 11 |
| 11 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | 1:40.118 | 12 |
| 12 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn - Mercedes | 1:40.192 | 10 |
| 13 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:40.230 | 12 |
| 14 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:40.260 | 12 |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:40.402 | 9 |
| 16 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 1:40.443 | 10 |
| 17 | Mark Webber | Red Bull - Renault | 1:40.879 | 10 |
| 18 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull - Renault | 1:40.916 | 6 |
| 19 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | 1:41.125 | 12 |
| 20 | Luca Badoer | Ferrari | 1:42.198 | 14 |
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