Work resumed at the Yas Marina circuit in the fading light of the afternoon.
The Red Bulls started the session with a short run on the experimental soft tyres and set the early pace. Using the same compound, Fernando Alonso was marginally quicker and took over at the front. McLaren, on the contrary, began work on the hard tyres.
After a short stay in the pits, both Vettel and Webber came back on track but couldn’t improve. The Australian seemed able to lower his time but lost the rear of his RB7 and span. He safely rejoined and pitted. Unlike the Red Bull drivers, Alonso managed to improve and lowered the benchmark.
As the session came towards its midway point, Felipe Massa moved up to 4th ahead of Hamilton and Schumacher. Sutil, Button, Kobayashi and Buemi completed the top ten.
Now running soft tyres, Button and Hamilton topped the order with 39 minutes remaining. As he was pushing to improve his time and beat the McLarens, Sebastian Vettel lost the rear at Turn 1 and slid across the run-off area. He gently nudged the barrier and climbed out of his car.
Not long after that, Fernando Alonso also went off at Turn One. The rear of his Ferrari made contact with the tyre barrier. The Spaniard climbed out of it and walked back to his garage.
The final part of the session was dedicated, as usual, to some long runs on heavy fuel and soft tyres. In this context, improvements were rare.
Thanks to swift repair work carried out by the RBR team mechanics, Vettel was able to rejoin for the last seven minutes. It allowed him to get a feel of the behavior of the medium compounds on a heavy-fuel load.
Hamilton ended the session on top, 0.1s ahead of his teammate Button. Despite missing part of the session, Alonso was third fastest. Massa was fourth, Webber fifth and Vettel sixth. Schumacher, Sutil, di Resta and Kobayashi completed the top ten.
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren Mercedes | 1.39.586 | 31 | |
| 02 | Jenson Button | McLaren Mercedes | 1.39.785 | +0.199 | 30 |
| 03 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1.39.971 | +0.385 | 20 |
| 04 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1.39.980 | +0.394 | 34 |
| 05 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Renault | 1.40.104 | +0.518 | 35 |
| 06 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Renault | 1.40.132 | +0.546 | 26 |
| 07 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 1.40.553 | +0.967 | 34 |
| 08 | Adrian Sutil | Force India Mercedes | 1.40.951 | +1.365 | 34 |
| 09 | Paul di Resta | Force India Mercedes | 1.41.021 | +1.435 | 37 |
| 10 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber Ferrari | 1.41.490 | +1.904 | 34 |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Sauber Ferrari | 1.41.565 | +1.979 | 34 |
| 12 | Sébastien Buemi | Toro Rosso Ferrari | 1.41.680 | +2.094 | 33 |
| 13 | Vitaly Petrov | Lotus Renault GP | 1.41.947 | +2.361 | 31 |
| 14 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso Ferrari | 1.41.983 | +2.397 | 34 |
| 15 | Bruno Senna | Lotus Renault GP | 1.42.369 | +2.783 | 36 |
| 16 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams Cosworth | 1.42.798 | +3.212 | 35 |
| 17 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams Cosworth | 1.42.910 | +3.324 | 34 |
| 18 | Heikki Kovalainen | Team Lotus Renault | 1.43.562 | +3.976 | 36 |
| 19 | Jarno Trulli | Team Lotus Renault | 1.44.050 | +4.464 | 38 |
| 20 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes GP | 1.44.265 | +4.679 | 41 |
| 21 | Timo Glock | Marussia Virgin Racing Cosworth | 1.45.486 | +5.900 | 34 |
| 22 | Jérôme d’Ambrosio | Marussia Virgin Racing Cosworth | 1.46.142 | +6.556 | 32 |
| 23 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT F1 Cosworth | 1.46.249 | +6.663 | 21 |
| 24 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT F1 Cosworth | 1.46.328 | +6.742 | 34 |