It was Vettel, though, who took the honours with the quickest lap of the weekend to date with one minute 27.086 seconds, 1.2secs faster than yesterday’s best from reigning world champion Jenson Button.

Vettel did survive a run-off at Turn Eight late on and now appears poised to continue the team’s streak of six consecutive poles.

The 22-year-old German finished 0.273secs clear of compatriot Nico Rosberg for Mercedes, with Hamilton a further 0.037secs adrift after an eventful hour-long session.

Midway through, Hamilton lost the rear end of his car at Turn Eight, one of the most daunting corners in Formula One.

After hitting the first two apexes, Hamilton then ran wide onto the red-and-white rumble strip on the outside of the corner, sending him into a sideways spin across the run-off area.

Although he beached the back end of the car in the gravel, the 25-year-old managed to extract himself, albeit having wrecked three of his four tyres.

Hamilton slowly crawled back to the garage with two flat rears – leaving the back of the car scraping along the tarmac – and with one large patch of the front-left worn down to the canvas.

The Briton eventually returned and went top until deposed in the closing stages by Vettel, who is level on points with Webber at the top of the drivers’ standings, but behind on race wins.

Webber, winner of the last two races in Spain and Monaco, finished fourth quickest and half a second down, but after an even more frenetic session than Hamilton.

The 33-year-old Australian, who ended yesterday’s second practice with the second best time but with an engine that let go in the dying stages, suffered further issues early on.

Webber was forced to trundle back to the garage on idle for the majority of his installation lap as there was no response from the throttle to the engine.

Although his mechanics repaired the problem, and with Vettel also requiring a hose change, Red Bull’s reliability niggles have again returned.

Then in the closing minutes a ragged-looking Webber went wide at Turns One, Four and Eight, the latter exit a virtual repeat of what happened to Hamilton, but just avoiding the gravel.

Renault’s Robert Kubica, the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso and seven-times champion Michael Schumacher in his Mercedes were fifth, sixth and seventh quickest, with Button eighth, 0.877secs adrift.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, a three-time winner of this race, was ninth, marginally behind Button, with the second Renault of Vitaly Petrov – who also ran wide at Turn Eight – 1.2secs down in 10th.

Force India’s Adrian Sutil failed to post a time as he spent the hour in the garage with a hydraulics issue.