Vettel tops final practice session

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Sebastian Vettel took up his usual place at the top of the times in final practice for his home race.

The Red Bull driver beat Fernando Alonso by two-tenths of a second in a late flurry of laps as the track dried out at the end of the hour’s running.

Another Hockenheim rain shower at the start of the session meant the drivers used a mix of wet weather and intermediate tyres to begin with.

Adrian Sutil’s session came to an early end with a suspected clutch failure after just two laps.

Once again the track proved particularly slippery in certain places, with the recently-resurfaced hairpin catching out many drivers including Michael Schumacher, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Nico Rosberg and Vitaly Petrov.

The first driver to risk a run on slick tyres was Sebastien Buemi, which moved him to the top of the times. That led to a series of quick laps as the rest of the field bolted on hard tyres and then super-softs.

Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber and Alonso each took turns to set the fastest time at the end of the session but Vettel put the mark beyond their reach with a 1’15.103.

Alonso reflected Ferrari’s progress with second fastest time ahead of Webber and Felipe Massa in the other Ferrari.

But the Virgin duo missed out on much of the session with more gearbox problems.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapLaps
15Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’15.10318
28Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’15.3870.28421
36Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’15.7080.60516
47Felipe MassaFerrari1’15.8540.75120
54Nico RosbergMercedes1’16.0460.94320
62Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’16.2071.10413
73Michael SchumacherMercedes1’16.4731.3716
89Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’16.4811.37823
911Robert KubicaRenault1’16.6461.54320
1010Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’16.7431.6417
1123Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’16.8821.77919
1216Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’16.9901.88721
131Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’17.0371.93415
1412Vitaly PetrovRenault1’17.1482.04520
1522Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’17.2202.11719
1617Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’17.3412.23821
1715Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes1’17.5382.43522
1819Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’19.1934.0911
1918Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’19.6074.50410
2021Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’20.5335.439
2120Sakon YamamotoHRT-Cosworth1’21.5386.43514
2225Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’23.4448.34110
2324Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’23.8738.777
2414Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes2

Drivers’ ultimate laps

A driver’s ultimate lap is his best time in each sector added together.

Pos.CarDriverCarUltimate lapGapDeficit to best
15Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’15.1030.000
28Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’15.2600.1570.127
32Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’15.7050.6020.502
46Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’15.7080.6050.000
57Felipe MassaFerrari1’15.8540.7510.000
64Nico RosbergMercedes1’16.0460.9430.000
73Michael SchumacherMercedes1’16.3561.2530.117
89Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’16.4811.3780.000
911Robert KubicaRenault1’16.5881.4850.058
1010Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’16.6311.5280.112
111Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’16.7831.6800.254
1223Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’16.8391.7360.043
1312Vitaly PetrovRenault1’16.9331.8300.215
1416Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’16.9611.8580.029
1522Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’17.1152.0120.105
1615Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes1’17.1912.0880.347
1717Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’17.3412.2380.000
1819Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’19.1934.0900.000
1918Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’19.4994.3960.108
2021Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’20.2055.1020.328
2120Sakon YamamotoHRT-Cosworth1’21.0695.9660.469
2225Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’22.7877.6840.657
2324Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’23.4068.3030.467
2414Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes17’27.713972.610-875.713

Complete practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Total laps
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’28.7351’16.2941’15.10365
2Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’29.6841’16.2651’15.38771
3Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’29.0481’16.5851’15.70869
4Felipe MassaFerrari1’26.8501’16.4381’15.85484
5Nico RosbergMercedes1’27.4481’16.8271’16.04672
6Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’29.4291’17.0041’16.20731
7Michael SchumacherMercedes1’32.4501’16.9711’16.47349
8Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’26.9471’17.0561’16.48181
9Robert KubicaRenault1’28.9031’17.0091’16.64677
10Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’28.1931’17.2041’16.74385
11Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’29.6901’17.3361’16.88280
12Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’28.1141’18.1471’16.99097
13Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’26.9361’17.7391’17.03767
14Vitaly PetrovRenault1’26.9481’17.5471’17.14876
15Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’28.4861’17.5731’17.22081
16Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’29.3661’19.3271’17.341103
17Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes1’28.3001’17.8711’17.53874
18Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’25.7011’17.70160
19Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’20.3771’19.19348
20Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’28.7351’19.5531’23.87358
21Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’29.2801’20.0081’19.60761
22Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’29.5001’20.1061’23.44460
23Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’31.7201’21.9881’20.53369
24Sakon YamamotoHRT-Cosworth1’32.7911’23.0661’21.53877
25Fairuz FauzyLotus-Cosworth1’30.93827

2010 German Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    16 comments on “Vettel tops final practice session”

    1. Looks like this one is gonna be tougher for the Bulls

    2. Younger Hamilton
      24th July 2010, 11:24

      Ferrari looking very close and competitive right now but the Redbulls and McLarens have got something in hand,Ferrari are showing their true qualifying pace in third practice while McLaren and Redbull have clearly something extra.Still expecting Lewis to have a good shot of pole but the favourites as usual are the redbulls.

      1. And what makes you think all that? Clearly its the other way around?

        1. Younger Hamilton
          24th July 2010, 12:02

          @Steven Ferrari Fanboy here!!! its being the story of the season.I admitting this, im a McLaren fan and a Ferrari disliker but its true Alonso and Massa are just throwing every inch of qualifying pace in third practice while McLaren and Redbull are just leaving it until the third part of qualifying,you watch.

          1. Thats why Mclaren who have for most of the season have topped practice and then been off the pace in quali. Just because you don’t like a team it does not make them slower.

            1. Yeah that’s correct.. Mclaren seems to have topped especially the friday practices all season until recently. And also, who got second pole (3rd, 1st after red bull) in silverstone? Alonso. clearly their car ks more competetive now. Button seems to struggle a lot with the EBD

          2. So qually has come and gone.

            Told you so.

            There, I said it.

        2. He’s obviously been drinking Whitmarsh’s Kool-Aid!

          http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85485

          In the last 12 years:

          Ferrari – 8 Constructor’s Championships
          McLaren – 1

    3. I think its going to be Fernando splitting both the RBs after quali. Vettel 1st, Alonso 2nd, Webber 3rd followed by Lewis and Massa. Im guessing another Q2 exit for Jenson.

    4. Hamilton was on pace to match Vettel for the first 2 sectors before pitting at the end of the session.

      1. Younger Hamilton
        24th July 2010, 12:07

        thus he did do less laps than Vettel,Webber,Alonso and Massa.

    5. if it’s going to be dry run on Q its going to be last driver-pole lap i think.
      Should be nice.. come on Ferrari you can make it! make the bulls hunt you.

    6. I have to say, I feel for Petrov. He was up close to Kubica for most of the session, and then Kubica pulls half a second out of nowhere in the last two minutes.

      1. Why feel sorry for him now? Save it for next year when he’s driving for Virgin!

    7. if it rains you can count massa out,he`s no good in rain,alonso complains to much,vetel and webber will colide so that leaves hamilton,button and shumacher who are great in the rain,i think nico will do well today,but i have a feeling the brits are gonna pull this one out of the bag

    8. oh,does anyone know where i could find senna`s last race

    Comments are closed.