Vettel puts Red Bull on top

In Valencia final practice

Practice for the European Grand Prix concluded this morning with a final 60-minute session.

Softer tyres were used in the second part of the session and saw Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time, 0.4s ahead of Ferrari’s Alonso. Massa was third quickest with Webber fourth. Jenson Button set the fifth fastest time for McLaren but was a full second down on Vettel’s pace.

His teammate Hamilton was seventh, splitting the Mercedes pair of Rosberg and Schumacher. The Renaults of Petrov and Heidfeld completed the top ten.

How the session panned out :

The session started quite slowly with simple installation laps. Seven minutes in, silence fell on the Valencia circuit as all 24 cars were in the pits.

Trulli, d’Ambrosio and Karthikeyan eventually broke the silence with nearly fifteen minutes gone. More drivers came out and the session gently came to life.

As the frontrunners were biding their time, Alguersuari and the Sauber drivers traded fastest times. Nick Heidfeld then slightly turned the heat on and took over at the front by a comfortable margin. His tenure was not meant to last though as both Ferraris and Hamilton’s McLaren joined the fun.

They initially slotted in relatively low-key positions before upping the ante. Alonso jumped at the front shortly before the halfway point. He was a full second clear of his rivals. Button and the Red Bull drivers were still to complete a lap but were readying to do so.

Felipe Massa moved up to P2, closing within two tenths of a second of his teammate. Button, in the meantime, went third quickest with his first flying lap. Alonso further improved his time as the Red Bulls were stretching their legs.

Vettel’s first effort put him in 5th place. Webber was a bit faster and slotted in P3. Button came really close to beating Alonso but missed out on it. Vettel, meanwhile, nailed a super fast lap to take over at the front. He lapped in the high 1’38 to beat Alonso and Button by 0.5s.

Webber also found a bit more pace to go 2nd to his teammate. Vettel was not done yet and further lowered his benchmark as Schumacher split the Red Bull pair with a soft tyre effort.

Rosberg made perfect use of his softer rubber to go top of the list. Massa and Alonso were next to come out for a run on the soft tyre. They both went faster than Rosberg, and broke the 1’38 barrier.

The McLaren and Red Bull teams left it late and came back on track in the final part of the session. Webber set the 3rd fastest time in front of Button while Hamilton struggled to P7. Vettel found a clean lap to edge Alonso out by 0.4s.

Schumacher and Kobayashi had a spin in the final minute of the session.