Capital's reach actually declined from the second to third quarter by 1.1% to 1.59m, but heavier consumption helped it to increase its share of listening from 4.6% to 5.4%.
This was its best result since the first quarter of 2006 and a sign the station may finally be making its long-awaited recovery as part of the Global Radio group.
The breakfast show with Johnny Vaughan, now joined by Lisa Snowden, put its poor second quarter behind it, adding 108,000 listeners to reach 880,000 between the hours of 6am and 9am.
This was just 5,000 behind Neil Fox's Magic breakfast show, which was again the most popular commercial show in London.
Bauer's Magic was also the most popular commercial station in the capital, but by a much smaller margin than last quarter.
This time it led its Global Radio-owned rival Heart by 5.8% to 5.7%, instead of 7.4% to 5.7%. While Magic's reach dropped 6% to 1.89m, Heart's was steady with a 0.4% increase to 1.78m.
After Capital in third place, Bauer-owned Kiss improved its share from 4.5% to 4.8% and boosted its reach by 8.3% to 1.53m.
This was the final Rajar report for Virgin Radio before its rebrand as Absolute Radio (the well trailed on-air change was made two weeks after this quarter's reporting period ended on September 14).
The station recorded a share of 3.3%, up from 3.2% in the previous quarter, and a reach of 1.01m, down 5.4% from 1.07m.
Indie rock rival Xfm raised its share to 1.2% from 1.1%, but suffered a 17% drop in reach to 463,000.
Choice, Global Radio's other youth-focused station, also had a poor quarter with its share falling from 1.9% to 1.6% and its reach down by 4% to 457,000.
Global's speech station LBC continues to perform well, with a rise in share from 2.7% to 3.6% and an 8.9% increase in reach to 647,000.
GMG Radio's Smooth enjoyed a 23.1% climb in reach to 538,000 but light listening meant its share declined from 1.7% to 1.5%.
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