Sebastian Vettel back on top in final practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel suggested that Red Bull's hard late-night work might have paid off as he beat Fernando Alonso's Ferrari to the top spot in final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

After Vettel was unhappy with the car on Friday, Red Bull used its first curfew exception of the year to work into the night trying to improve the set-up.

Vettel then led most of the middle part of the session this morning, having set a 1m22.021s early in the running on harder tyres. Even though he ran wide on his first flying lap on his next outing and took the best out of his tyres, he was still far enough clear of the field that he set a lap that would have been good enough for second next time around.

Alonso was then the first driver to set a good time on the super soft tyres, jumping to the front with a 1m21.469s with 10 minutes to go.

But Vettel's qualifying-style lap was even faster, the world champion clocking a 1m21.168s to end the session on top by 0.301s.

Although Jenson Button took third for McLaren, his team-mate Lewis Hamilton did not get a chance to show what he could do at the end.

The Friday pacesetter ran wide at Turn 1 at the start of what would have been his first flying lap on super softs, reported over the radio that the brakes "did not work" and pitted after one more lap. That left Hamilton seventh in the end.

Mark Webber was just behind Button in fourth for Red Bull, ahead of Felipe Massa - the Ferrari driving having been some small mistakes on his super soft run. He had earlier narrowly avoided the barriers at the chicane during a trip over the grass.

Nico Rosberg's Mercedes completed the top six, with Hamilton, the second Mercedes of Michael Schumacher, Vitaly Petrov's Renault and Paul di Resta's Force India next up. Nick Heidfeld was just outside the top 10 in the other Renault after losing time parked in the garage with a fuel system problem.

At the tail of the field, the Virgins and Hispanias were all outside the 107 per cent rule had it been applied to this session - although the leading drivers are unlikely to use super softs in Q1.

Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps
1 1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:21.168
2 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:21.469 0.301
3 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.639 0.471
4 2 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:21.645 0.477
5 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:22.002 0.834
6 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:22.534 1.366
7 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.667 1.499
8 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:23.037 1.869
9 10 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:23.175 2.007
10 15 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:23.276 2.108
11 9 Nick Heidfeld Renault 1:23.281 2.113
12 17 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1:23.375 2.207
13 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:23.626 2.458
14 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:23.663 2.495
15 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1:23.894 2.726
16 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:23.966 2.798
17 19 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 1:23.998 2.830
18 18 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 1:25.061 3.893
19 21 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1:25.141 3.973
20 20 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1:25.501 4.333
21 25 Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1:26.955 5.787
22 22 Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 1:26.991 5.823
23 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:27.174 6.006
24 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1:27.713 6.545

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