Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button topped the timesheets for McLaren after the third and final practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit. However, the session may not have been indicative about which of the 24 drivers will be on pole position due to two reasons. First, the track temperature was in excess of 40 degrees centigrade and is expected to drop sharply for the qualifying session, which begins two hours after the end of free practice three and is held at twilight.

Second, what seemed like a hydraulics problem, meant that defending world champion Sebastian Vettel spent the majority of the session in the Red Bull Racing pit garage and managed just seven laps in the session. The two McLaren drivers and Vettel's Red Bull teammate Mark Webber - who finished fourth behind the German - did 18, 17 and 18 laps in the hour long session, respectively.

The top ten was completed by the impressive Nico Hulkenberg in fifth, who will leave Force India for Sauber next year, Romain Grosjean, Pastor Maldonado, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Paul Di Resta.

Narain Karthikeyan recorded the 24th fastest time in his HRT F112, a little under 0.5 seconds slower than Spanish teammate Pedro De La Rosa.