Vettel impresses in final practice

Sebastian Vettel is on course to chalk up his 13th pole position of the season after setting the fastest time in final practice for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix.

If Vettel can convert his speed into pole it will lift Red Bull into the Formula One record books as it would be their 16th of a dominant campaign, beating the mark they equalled last year.

On his final flying lap Vettel knocked Jenson Button from top spot by 0.367secs, with the German dipping below the 85-second mark for the first time with a lap of one minute 24.824secs. Button was closely followed by Vettel's Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber and his own at McLaren in Lewis Hamilton, with the trio covered by less than a tenth of a second.

Hamilton, however, will have to improve on that showing if he is to have any chance of victory given the three-place grid penalty he was handed on Friday.

In a troubled season, the 26-year-old accepted his punishment for ignoring double waved yellow flags - that implore a driver to slow down considerably - at a time when marshals were recovering Pastor Maldonado's stricken Williams following a spin.

Behind the leading quartet were Ferrari duo Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, the former just over a second off the pace.

Massa, who was quickest on Friday, failed to reproduce such form, and found his second practice time shattered by Vettel by 0.9secs.

Encouragingly, Scotland's Paul di Resta was seventh quickest, just under two seconds down as Force India aim to put on a show in front of their home fans.

Di Resta was followed by Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes and team-mate Adrian Sutil, beating the German by almost 0.2secs.

Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi completed the top 10, with seven-times champion Michael Schumacher in 11th, but with his Mercedes 2.4secs adrift. Bruno Senna was 12th in his Renault, the Brazilian sliding off the dusty track for the third consecutive session.