F1: McLaren Back In Command For Final Abu Dhabi Practice

Formula 1

F1: McLaren Back In Command For Final Abu Dhabi Practice

McLaren teammates Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button returned to the top of the time sheet in P3 after leading P1...

Jared Turner | Posted November 03, 2012 Abu Dhabi (ARE)

Lewis Hamilton prepares to take the track at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. (Photo: Getty Images)

Make no mistake about it: the McLaren boys have some serious speed this weekend at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

After teammates Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button led a 1-2 McLaren charge in the first of Friday's two practices, the two men returned to the top of the time sheet in P3 Saturday after being pipped by Sebastian Vettel in Friday's second session.

As with P1, it was Hamilton (1:42:130) showing the way over Button (1:42:420), with Vettel (1:42:614) slotting in at the No. 3 spot. Mark Webber and Nico Hulkenberg completed the top five.

Sixth though 10th on the time sheet were Romain Grosjean, Pastor Maldonado, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Paul di Resta.

Vettel, the reigning World Champion and points leader, barely got on track in the final, one-hour session as his team had to reassemble the brakes on his RB8 car.

Only in the final five minutes did Vettel post a timed lap, and the German logged just seven laps over the entire hour. Vettel recovered nicely, however, by posting the session's third quickest time, but was nearly half a second off the leading McLaren.

Vettel leads the standings by 13 points over Alonso with three races to go in the 2012 season. Third-place driver Kimi Raikkonen is 67 points back and on the verge of being mathematically eliminated from title contention.

Vettel is seeking to win for the fifth consecutive time this weekend following successive victories in Singapore, Japan, Korea and India.

Jared Turner is an Associate Editor for SPEED.com, covering NASCAR and Formula One, and is an Editor for TruckSeries.com. His professional motorsports writing career began in 2005.