Duval moved to the top of the timesheets with 10 minutes left to run, but a few moments later he ground to a halt on the exit of Turn 9 with damage to his left-rear suspension. The Frenchman’s time was over a second quicker than the fastest time seen during yesterday’s running after the asphalt at Turn 1 was resurfaced overnight.

Buemi had lead for the majority of the 45-minute session that was twice disrupted by red flags, but the winner of Saturday’s race could not find enough time to topple Duval in the final few minutes of the session.

Oliver Turvey brought out the first of the red flags when his NEXTEV TCR machine stopped at Turn 8, but the British driver was able to get back out in his second car after he had returned to the pits and ended the session in 12th place.

Home favourite Sam Bird moved to the top of the timings with 25 minutes of the session remaining, but Simona de Silvestro hit the barriers at the final chicane shortly afterwards and her stricken Andretti car had to be recovered by the marshals under a second red flag.

E.dams-Renault’s Nicolas Prost edged out Alex Fontana to take fourth place on the timesheets ahead of Lucas di Grassi and Venturi’s Stephane Sarrazin.

Audi Sport ABT’s Daniel Abt beat championship leader Nelson Piquet Jr to eighth place – who had survived an early trip down the Turn 3 escape road. Karun Chandhok completed the top 10 despite spinning his Mahindra machine at Turn 8 with a few minutes left on the clock.

To view the results in full click here.