Sebastian Vettel tops final Brazilian Grand Prix practice

Sebastian Vettel edged out Jenson Button to set the fastest time in the final free practice session ahead of Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying at Interlagos.

Their respective Red Bull and McLaren team-mates Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton were third and fourth.

As had been the case on Friday, most of the session was a Red Bull versus McLaren battle at the front.

Hamilton was the big-hitters to post a quick time with a 1m13.988s after 17 minutes. Things moved fast in the next five minutes as everyone got fully up to speed, with Vettel hitting the front very briefly, being beaten by Button, then returning to the top with a 1m13.166s.

That kept Vettel at the head of the order for 20 minutes before Mark Webber edged ahead, and then Force India's Adrian Sutil made a surprise appearance in first place with a 1m13.113s on softs.

The German enjoyed six minutes in the spotlight prior to the bigger teams bolted on soft tyres too, with first Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), then Hamilton going to the front before Vettel blasted in consecutive laps in 1m12.508s and 1m12.460s - both faster than anyone else would manage.

Button ended up 0.087 seconds shy in second, followed by Webber, Hamilton and Alonso.

Sutil's lap kept him up in sixth place, ahead of the two Mercedes, the sister Force India of Paul di Resta and Ferrari's Felipe Massa. The Brazilian had a complicated end to the session with near-misses with Timo Glock's Virgin on track and Schumacher in the pit exit.

Further back, Bruno Senna lost some track time to engine issues on his Renault, and Sebastien Buemi did not get chance to set a time due to a hydraulic leak on his Toro Rosso.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m12.460s            21
 2.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m12.547s  + 0.087s  19
 3.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m12.597s  + 0.137s  21
 4.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m12.622s  + 0.162s  15
 5.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m12.765s  + 0.305s  17
 6.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m13.113s  + 0.653s  22
 7.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m13.286s  + 0.826s  21
 8.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m13.393s  + 0.933s  19
 9.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m13.419s  + 0.959s  19
10.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m13.583s  + 1.123s  18
11.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m13.838s  + 1.378s  20
12.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m14.283s  + 1.823s  19
13.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m14.286s  + 1.826s  20
14.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m14.311s  + 1.851s  24
15.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth     1m14.454s  + 1.994s  22
16.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m14.547s  + 2.087s  24
17.  Bruno Senna         Renault               1m14.551s  + 2.091s  15
18.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Renault         1m15.843s  + 3.383s  24
19.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault         1m16.026s  + 3.566s  22
20.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m16.616s  + 4.156s  26
21.  Tonio Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth          1m17.143s  + 4.683s  23
22.  Daniel Ricciardo    HRT-Cosworth          1m17.296s  + 4.836s  23
23.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m17.984s  + 5.524s  23
24.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari                         3

All timing unofficial

Autosport