World champion Jenson Button set himself up to fight for his first pole position since Monaco in May in the inaugural qualifying session in Abu Dhabi after topping the final practice times by the narrowest of margins.
The Brawn driver turned the tables on McLaren, and in particular countryman Lewis Hamilton, with a lap of 1m40.625s with just 20 seconds remaining on the clock having been edged out by the Woking team at the top of the Friday practice times at the new Yas Marina circuit.
Recently deposed champion Hamilton, who had again led for the majority of the hour-long session, tried to regain top spot with his own final lap but fell a scant 0.002s short.
Brawn’s optimism heading into qualifying was increased by Rubens Barrichello who improved to third once the chequered flag had fallen, the Brazilian just under 0.3s back from the two Brits.
Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi was again a permanent feature in the top six and posted a promising fourth-best time for Toro Rosso, with Nick Heidfeld moving into the top five in the closing stages for BMW.
After Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen had set the hour-long session’s early significant benchmark, Friday pacesetter Heikki Kovalainen moved ahead on a 1m43.046s after 20 minutes before Buemi took control with two quicker laps.
The Swiss rookie, looking as comfortable as anyone on the new 3.45-mile track, pumped in two hot laps of 1m42.871s and 1m42.433s, before Britain’s back-to-back world champions made their presence in the session felt.
First Button used the soft tyres to sneak ahead on a 1m42.397s, before Hamilton, following close behind on the harder rubber, totally blew that time out of the water with a lap an astonishing 1.127s faster.
With 17 minutes remaining, the McLaren driver then returned to the track to scratch a further two tenths of a second off his best time – but Buemi then showed he wasn’t finished yet and became the first man this weekend into the 1m40s.
Hamilton then looked to have done enough when, at the start of his final run on soft tyres, moved the benchmark to 1m40.810s, although he seemed to lose several crucial tenths in the final sector as the rear of his MP4-24 snaked out of shape.
Button, however, continuing to revel in the pressure-free situation he now finds himself him, had other ideas and despite having switching back to the harder compound produced a 1m40.625s to settle the battle, although Hamilton came within a whisker of trumping it.
With the top four separated by just 0.3s, Heidfeld in fifth led a further group of drivers a further 0.3s back which included Kovalainen, Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and his team-mate Robert Kubica.
Adrian Sutil maintained his encouraging start to the weekend with ninth for Force India, with Raikkonen again just about sneaking into the top 10 for Ferrari – although the Finn’s hopes of making Q3 may be more difficult given the Red Bulls should have more speed than their 11th and 15th Saturday morning places suggested.
Renault again found itself stuck towards the bottom of the order, Romain Grosjean spinning twice as he tried to vain to find some more speed in the R29.
Toro Rosso’s other rookie driver Jaime Alguersuari missed crucial track time after a hydraulic problem was discovered on his STR4 even before he had completed an installation lap.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix free practice session three
1. BUTTON Brawn 1m40.625s
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1m40.627s
3. BARRICHELLO Brawn 1m40.907s
4. BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m40.934s
5. HEIDFELD BMW 1m41.241s
6. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m41.263s
7. TRULLI Toyota 1m41.310s
8. KUBICA BMW 1m41.322s
9. SUTIL Force India 1m41.372s
10. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m41.373s
11. VETTEL Red Bull 1m41.403s
12. ROSBERG Williams 1m41.478s
13. KOBAYASHI Toyota 1m41.499s
14. LIUZZI Force India 1m41.675s
15. WEBBER Red Bull 1m41.682s
16. ALONSO Renault 1m41.897s
17. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m42.156s
18. GROSJEAN Renault 1m42.213s
19. FISICHELLA Ferrari 1m42.351s
20. ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso no time