Turkish GP - Practice Session 3 - Red Bull back in Contention

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Saturday Practice Session - 3, DHL Turkish Grand Prix, Istanbul Park

Just when it seemed, it was between Mclaren-Mercedes for the Turkish GP, Red Bull comeback to grab its top position. It was Red Bull - Mercedes in the third practice session. The sunny morning session seem some hard core competition between the top teams.

Red Bull Sebastian Vettel just clinched the top position from the 7 time world champion in the dying stages with only thousandth of a second faster to the Mercedes. Also Mark Webber took the position ahead of Nico Rosberg in second Mercedes for third.

Sebastian Vettel who was not able to take part in second practice session after the heavy accident in first practice session so no sign of losing the title hunt in the third practice session.

It seems Mercedes got its touch back. As it was once again looking a World Champion Michael Schumacher back on track to haunt the other drivers.

Then came the strong Mclaren's of recent time to 5th and 6th.

With 3weeks time to upgrade, Mercedes seems to get things right on track as Norbert Haug also claimed recently that their pace in China was genuine and they seem to upgrade the same in coming races. For complete followup regarding the news, click here.

Renault may have a tough time for battle as they were only 7th and 14th fastest on time sheet but still looks to turn the table tomorrow.

Ferrari of Fernando Alonso came only 8th fastest on time sheets as much improved Ferrari version could not able to match time with the other factory constructors. Massa came just behind the Alonso's Ferrari.

Sebastian Buemi brought Toro Rosso back in top 10 with rookie Perez seem to get an edge over Kobayashi.

Rookie Pastor Maldonado beat his team mate by putting the revised Williams in 12th position and Barrichello was only 15th. Then came the Adrian's Force India on 13th with Paul finishing only 16th. Force India have shown a lot of improvement in the first two practice session. May be there is more to come from their side in Qualifying and Race tomorrow.

At the back of the field, order set as usual with Lotus seems to get a improved time that can match the other midfielders.

HRT closes in on Virgin can upset the team in the race tomorrow.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull - Renault	1min 26.037		17
2	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1min 26.038sec	0.001	17
3	Mark Webber	Red Bull - Renault	1min 26.404sec	0.367	16
4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1min 26.420sec	0.383	19
5	Jenson Button	Mclaren - Mercedes	1min 26.578sec	0.541	17
6	Lewis Hamilton	Mclaren - Mercedes	1min 26.726sec	0.689	14
7	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1min 26.755sec	0.718	20
8	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1min 26.819sec	0.782	12
9	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1min 26.883sec	0.846	12
10	Sebastien Buemi	STR - Ferrari	1min 27.080sec	1.043	16
11	Sergio Perez	Sauber - Ferrari	1min 27.121sec	1.084	20
12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams - Cosworth	1min 27.255sec	1.218	18
13	Adrian Sutil	Force India - Mercedes	1min 27.318sec	1.281	19
14	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1min 27.379sec	1.342	17
15	Rubens Barrichello	Williams - Cosworth	1min 27.528sec	1.491	19
16	Paul Di Resta	Force India - Mercedes	1min 27.644sec	1.607	18
17	Jaime Alguersuari	STR - Ferrari	1min 27.724sec	1.687	15
18	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber - Ferrari	1min 27.976sec	1.939	19
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus - Renault	1min 28.911sec	2.874	15
20	Jarno Trulli	Lotus - Renault	1min 29.697sec	3.660	17
21	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin - Cosworth	1min 31.097sec	5.060	25
22	Timo Glock	Virgin - Cosworth	1min 31.175sec	5.138	19
23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT - Cosworth	1min 31.375sec	5.338	19
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT - Cosworth	1min 32.009sec	5.972	15