The Red Bull duo were fastest in the final practice session at the Nurburgring.
But the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso remained an ever-present threat, lapping just two-tenths of a second slower.
Alonso did his best time on his first lap on soft tyres, while the Red Bull drivers had to do a second run to beat his time.
Sebastian Vettel went fastest of all as the chequered flag came out with a 1’30.916.
The McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were fourth and fifth, but around half a second slower than the Red Bulls and Ferraris.
Dry but very cold conditions greeted the teams on Saturday morning: the air temperature was just 12C as the cars took to the track.
Drivers had to do several laps to get their tyres up to temperature, particularly on the harder medium tyres.
The Mercedes drivers traded fastest times early on, before Lewis Hamilton came out to lower the mark.
Shortly after that Alonso took over at the top of the times. The Red Bull drivers were the last to do their medium tyres runs, and Sebastian Vettel was the quicker of the pair with a 1’32.878.
At the end of the session he was almost two seconds quicker on the soft tyres.
Karun Chandhok ended a difficult session with a high-speed spin in a the Schumacher S, having spun earlier at the chicane.
His team mate Heikki Kovalainen missed much of the early part of the session with an hydraulic problem.
Combined practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Total laps |
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’32.268 | 1’32.084 | 1’30.916 | 70 |
2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’32.217 | 1’31.711 | 1’31.049 | 74 |
3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’31.894 | 1’31.879 | 1’31.138 | 80 |
4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’32.996 | 1’32.724 | 1’31.578 | 59 |
5 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’33.628 | 1’33.225 | 1’31.623 | 53 |
6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’33.787 | 1’32.557 | 1’31.694 | 84 |
7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’32.681 | 1’32.354 | 1’32.144 | 72 |
8 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’33.832 | 1’33.211 | 1’32.391 | 81 |
9 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’33.863 | 1’32.411 | 1’32.523 | 78 |
10 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 1’36.842 | 1’34.996 | 1’32.751 | 82 |
11 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1’34.094 | 1’33.138 | 1’32.777 | 62 |
12 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’33.299 | 1’32.813 | 55 | |
13 | Nick Heidfeld | Renault | 1’35.444 | 1’33.098 | 1’33.072 | 57 |
14 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1’35.389 | 1’34.344 | 1’33.179 | 75 |
15 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’36.371 | 1’34.113 | 1’33.531 | 76 |
16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’36.882 | 1’34.491 | 1’33.671 | 82 |
17 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’33.858 | 26 | ||
18 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’35.371 | 1’33.948 | 44 | |
19 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’35.115 | 1’34.487 | 1’34.125 | 79 |
20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1’36.392 | 1’35.753 | 1’35.385 | 84 |
21 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’40.109 | 1’36.940 | 1’36.724 | 76 |
22 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 1’38.145 | 1’36.804 | 54 | |
23 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’40.428 | 1’37.313 | 1’36.894 | 78 |
24 | Karun Chandhok | Lotus-Renault | 1’38.765 | 1’37.248 | 1’36.959 | 70 |
25 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT-Cosworth | 1’39.279 | 1’40.737 | 1’37.554 | 51 |
26 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1’38.504 | 22 |
2011 German Grand Prix
Image © Red Bull/Getty images
24 comments on “Red Bull lead Ferrari in final practice”
Comments are closed.
sozavele (@formula-1)
23rd July 2011, 11:08
Alonso still had tyre life.
JamieFranklinF1 (@jamiefranklinf1)
23rd July 2011, 11:08
I still think Alonso will have the edge going into Quali…if it doesn’t rain that is.
CarsVsChildren (@carsvschildren)
23rd July 2011, 11:10
Didn’t see the session, so I am only going off the lap times above, but really really not looking good for Ricciardo….
Neusalz (@dpod)
23rd July 2011, 11:24
Everything written down on paper so far has indeed revealed that you are correct. People just over-rated him too quickly and should have waited for actual results. I’ll give him until the end of the season to fully rate him as a driver but so far no TR or RB seat for him. His results so far makes me wonder if he can beat Narain.
Unfortunately, Chandhok is not really impressing with his results either.
ZanteX (@zantex)
23rd July 2011, 11:42
Well, wouldn’t this be under-rating him too quickly? His first f1 weekend in an HRT, come on… I would imagine driving an F1 car requires getting used to the car and knowing its limits and possibilities, not just the skill of driving A car.
F1andy83
23rd July 2011, 11:18
Heikki has been doing a great job on lotus.
Neusalz (@dpod)
23rd July 2011, 11:19
Mark’s vast improvements as of late may begin to reveal fireworks at RedBull. I believe that Silverstone wasnt the only time team orders would come to play, and it might only be a few races before we “really” start to see that he is indeed the #2 driver.
Rob Wilson (@rob-wilson)
23rd July 2011, 11:19
Well he’s 7 tenths slower than Liuzzi…Massa is a second slower than Alonso so i wouldn’t worry too much.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
23rd July 2011, 11:19
Anybody else notice that Hispania have finally gotten rid of the THIS COULD BE YOU decals? It’s been replaced by a silver-and-black HRT logo. There’s another one on the rear wing as well. THIS IS A COOL SPOT is still on the endplate, though. It’s amazing how one simple change makes them look so much more professional; they might be starved for liquid cash, but at least they look like they can keep their heads above water. I figure this is Thesan Captial extending their influence over the team.
BasCB (@bascb)
23rd July 2011, 16:07
I saw it yesterday. They also have the same on the trucks, looks a lot better.
Today they put up a picture on FB of how the guy from Cosmic Motors had also redesigned Lizzi’s helmet. Looks pretty good as well.
suka (@suka)
23rd July 2011, 11:21
I am glad mclarens closed the gap since yesterday but worried about massa. did not have chance to watch it, but the timing is not very promising for massa’s quali.
Adrian Morse
23rd July 2011, 11:36
I suspect Massa was struggling with tyre warming, so for a dry quali maybe he should consider doing two outlaps.
infy (@infy)
23rd July 2011, 12:00
Massa needs to up his game some how against Alonso. If alonso is going to stand any chance for the title, he needs to put Massa between himself and the bulls.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
23rd July 2011, 12:19
Massa needs to improve for his own reasons – but it’s not his business to win the drivers’ championship for Alonso.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
23rd July 2011, 12:36
Not until Ferrari tells him to. If Ferrari feel Alonso has a shot at the title, they’ll no doubt tell Massa to run interference on the Red Bulls for him to allow Alonso to build up a lead on-track – especially if Massa is out of the title fight.
Astonished
23rd July 2011, 12:44
Perhaps simply to help Ferrari constructors by getting as many points as possible for “others”??
I think th9
at you are a bit sensitive, hopefull.-y McLaren improves and you more relaxed
bananarama
23rd July 2011, 12:44
Of course it isn’t but a good teammate helps if he can and we all know Massa is a good sport when it matters .. he just doesn’t appear capable. Also, finishing on the podium for once would sure be in Felipes best interest aswell. For sure.
Atticus
23rd July 2011, 11:29
I also tip Alonso for pole if it’s not raining.
But as Crofty mentioned several times clouds are creeping ever closer on the horizon.
Raj
23rd July 2011, 11:36
Hope rani doesn’t spoil real pole fight among bulls & one horse..
Raj
23rd July 2011, 11:38
rain *
jon
23rd July 2011, 11:47
i hope it rains or tommorow wont be worth watching.im nt feeling the same on race day this year if webber is not allowed to fight vettle then two teams with n02 drivers at the front every week is not wat i want to watch…
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
23rd July 2011, 12:39
Do you really think Webber is going to listen to team orders? He didn’t in Silverstone.
But then, I seriously doubt Webber will get close enough to fight Vettel. He hasn’t been able to all year.
Nic Morley (@robocat)
23rd July 2011, 12:43
Yes he has. Since Valencia he has improves significantly, whether that is down to the tyres. It was only 2 weeks ago Webber was right behind Vettel… until team orders.
Fixy (@)
23rd July 2011, 17:48
Rosberg is good as he’s the only “outsider” to sometimes beat one of the first 6 drivers.