Sebastian Vettel set the quickest time in third practice, finally showing Red Bull’s true pace. Nico Rosberg managed to secure second ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Mark Webber and Robert Kubica rounded off the top five.
The session began with problems for Adrian Sutil, who failed to set a timed lap, whilst both Heikki Kovalainen and Mark Webber suffered gearbox issues. Lotus managed to fix Kovalainen’s by disabling a sensor, but Webber had to coast back to the pits and lost out on 20 minutes of track time.
Lewis Hamilton had a big off into turn eight. He caught the kerb and grass which span him into the gravel trap, luckily the marshalls managed to free him before he returned to the pits very slowly, nursing car damage, two punctures and two badly damaged tyres.
Hamilton did manage to get back out on track where he proceeded to set the fastest time before being beaten by Vettel and Rosberg.
Both Red Bull drivers had some scruffy laps in the closing minutes of the session. Webber went off into turn one, four and eight, whilst Vettel went very wide into turn eight, both recovering to the track.
Times for Friday practice three:
| 01 | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:27.086 | 18 |
| 02 | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:27.359 | 16 |
| 03 | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 1:27.369 | 14 |
| 04 | M. Webber | Red Bull | 1:27.553 | 15 |
| 05 | R. Kubica | Renault | 1:27.784 | 20 |
| 06 | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1:27.861 | 18 |
| 07 | M . Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:27.879 | 16 |
| 08 | J. Button | McLaren | 1:27.963 | 17 |
| 09 | F. Massa | Ferrari | 1:27.969 | 20 |
| 10 | V. Petrov | Renault | 1:28.344 | 18 |
| 11 | S. Buemi | Toro Rosso | 1:28.610 | 22 |
| 12 | P. de la Rosa | Sauber | 1:28.652 | 20 |
| 13 | J. Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | 1:28.734 | 21 |
| 14 | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 1:29.036 | 20 |
| 15 | N. Hulkenberg | Williams | 1:29.044 | 18 |
| 16 | V. Liuzzi | Force India | 1:29.211 | 15 |
| 17 | R. Barrichello | Williams | 1:29.305 | 14 |
| 18 | J. Trulli | Lotus | 1:30.618 | 19 |
| 19 | H. Kovalainen | Lotus | 1:30.884 | 22 |
| 20 | T. Glock | Virgin | 1:31.341 | 21 |
| 21 | L. di Grassi | Virgin | 1:32.180 | 16 |
| 22 | B. Senna | Hispania | 1:32.230 | 21 |
| 23 | K. Chandhok | Hispania | 1:32.762 | 19 |
| 24 | A. Sutil | Force India | No time | 1 |
All timing unofficial
