Red Bull set the pace in final practice

At Silverstone

The Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber set the pace in the third and final practice session for the British Grand Prix.

The first ten minutes of the one-hour session were really quiet as the drivers just went out on track for an installation lap and then pitted.

Having had to sit out most of yesterday afternoon’s practice, Jarno Trulli tried to make up for the time lost and kicked off a good run. He was soon joined on track by his teammate Heikki Kovalainen and the Lotus pair traded the quickest lap as the frontrunners were quite happy to let them clean up the racing line.

Both Virgin were also out but a throttle problem on Timo Glock’s car meant he had to tour back to the pits in a high gear. More drivers joined in the fun with twenty minutes gone and the hierarchy rapidly changed.

Jenson Button took over at the front with a 1’32’’854 but was soon overhauled by Hulkenberg, Kobayashi, Barrichello and Petrov. The Russian remained on top for a few minutes, until his teammate Kubica and Williams’ Barrichello bettered his best time.

The Brazilian was the first to dip under the 1’32 barrier but the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers were all yet to post a time. At the halfway point, it was Robert Kubica who was back in the lead. Barrichello was second fastest with Rosberg third.

Fernando Alonso moved up from dead last to top of the list with his first flying lap, while the Red Bulls were slowly making their way towards the front. Sebastian Vettel was up in 2nd position at the end of his first run. Running with a high fuel load his teammate Webber was down in 19th.

With just over fourteen minutes remaining, Vettel took over at the front with a 1’31’’039. He improved this time to a 1’30’’958 on the following lap. Mark Webber joined him at the front in the last minutes of the session.

Right at the end, Vettel was on a really hot lap when the nose of his car dropped as the front wing broke. He slowly made his way back into the pits and, although he couldn’t improve, he still held on to first place.

Webber made it a one-two for Red Bull in this final practice session. Alonso was third, Rosberg fourth and Massa fifth. Lewis Hamilton was seventh fastest, 0.591 slower than Vettel. His teammate Jenson Button was 12th fastest.