Indian GP: Maldonado shows improvement in FP3

The final practice session for the 2013 Indian Grand Prix would be delayed with the session only running for forty minutes. The delay was due to visibility issues and the fact that the medical helicopter could nt operate in such conditions.

With the start delayed many teams would bring forward their runs on the soft tyre in preparation for the qualifying session. Both Williams cars would take to the track very early coming out on the medium tyre with Alonso moving to the top of the times with a 1m:27.792. But Webber would improve to take this spot. For Williams Pastor Maldonado was down in twelfth in these early runs. Vettel would switch to the soft tyre and would set a 1m:25.332 to be quickest by some margin. Webber would follow his team-mate setting a 1m:25.892 to be second, while Raikkonen was third on the medium tyre.

There would be a moment in the Sauber pits with a mechanic being clipped by Hulkenberg who was coming into the pits. He would hobble away, to be treated by the medics. In the closing moments of the session Pastor would move up to be ninth with a 1m:26.641. But prior to this Pastor had several off track moments. Valtteri Bottas was down in eleventh with a 1m:883. Both times had been set on the soft tyre with the pair switching with about ten minutes left in the session. As the times dropped Pastor and Valtteri would see themselves finish in twelfth and sixteenth.

An encouraging time from Pastor as the Williams team prepares for the qualifying session. But Valtteri had dropped off the pace somewhat despite matching Pastor in the earlier practice sessions. Both drivers would complete practice pit stops as they came back in.

Pos Driver         	  Team		        Time     Laps
 1. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m25.332s 16
 2. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m25.892s 14
 3. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m26.105s 19
 4. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari        1m26.306s 17
 5. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m26.350s 16
 6. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m26.435s 20
 7. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m26.438s 15
 8. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m26.441s 19
 9. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m26.489s 15
10. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m26.557s 17
11. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m26.635s 14
12. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m26.641s 13
13. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      1m26.737s 13
14. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m26.847s 17
15. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m26.876s 17
16. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1m26.883s 15
17. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m27.259s 18
18. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault      1m27.941s 18
19. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1m28.019s 15
20. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault      1m28.498s 16
21. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth     1m29.094s 11
22. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth     1m29.169s 13