Sebastian Vettel made light of limited running as he set the fastest time of final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Vettel didn't enjoy a smooth session, having completed three installation laps he spent the most of the hour in the garage as Red Bull tried to get to the bottom of an engine problem, before getting on track with three minutes left. Once on track though, the championship leader got one flying lap in to set a 1:21.707 and ominously pip team-mate Mark Webber by 0.084s.
Webber was the first man to dip in to the 1m21s bracket on a longer run than Vettel on soft tyres, beating Michael Schumacher by over 1.2s. Lewis Hamilton was fourth quickest for McLaren with a 1:23.068 just 0.009s slower than Schumacher, ahead of his team-mate Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg in the other Mercedes.
Schumacher and team-mate Rosberg were the first drivers to set competitive times on the soft tyre, with Schumacher setting the quicker time although Rosberg did have to negotiate Vitaly Petrov during the final sector. When the McLaren pair ran line astern to set their times on the soft tyre neither was able to get the better of Schumacher, but they too had to negotiate traffic.
Kamui Kobayashi had an encouraging session with the seventh quickest time, ahead of Petrov. It wasn't a such a good morning on the other side of the Renault garage though, as Nick Heidfeld had to make a quick escape from his car mid way through the session after he rounded turn nine with the rear alight. As he brought the car to a stop the front exiting exhausts also emitted flames, engulfing the whole right-hand sidepod and engine cover. Later diagnosed as exhaust failure as the result of a hole in the right exhaust, it left Renault with a lot of work to do before qualifying.
Ninth-fastest Fernando Alonso also had issues, aborting a five-lap run on soft tyres after getting stuck in sixth gear. It was a repeat of difficulties that Ferrari faced in Turkey, which ultimately didn't cost them in qualifying on that occasion.
Although Red Bull showed extra pace and look threateningly quick at the front, the midfield battle in qualifying promises to be much closer as Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa, Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado were all separated by less than 0.1s.
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