Red Bull will go into British Grand Prix qualifying in excellent form having topped final practice at Silverstone in addition to leading both Friday sessions.
But the team also had a frightening moment when the nose section on pacesetter Sebastian Vettel's car came loose on his final run.
Vettel had already set a 1m30.958s lap to depose Fernando Alonso's Ferrari from the top spot, and was set to go even quicker when his car's nose box suddenly detached at the top and dropped down on the approach to Abbey, leaving the front wing scraping on the ground.
The German nursed the car back to the pits, and his time remained unbeaten.
Mark Webber completed a Red Bull one-two, 0.034 seconds behind Vettel, with Alonso third despite parking in the Ferrari garage with a problem in the closing minutes. He had been quickest until Red Bull's late surge.
Nico Rosberg showed encouraging form for Mercedes in fourth, ahead of Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa and mid-session leader Robert Kubica (Renault).
It was a low-key hour for McLaren after the removal of its exhaust-blown diffuser though, with local heroes Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button only seventh and 12th.
Michael Schumacher put the second Mercedes in the top ten in eighth, ahead of a strong run from Sauber's Pedro de la Rosa and Williams's Rubens Barrichello.
Other drivers hampered by issues included Adrian Sutil (whose Force India had a gearbox problem) and Jarno Trulli (Lotus), who lost more yet track time to hydraulic problems. Timo Glock managed the least mileage of all, a throttle glitch limiting his Virgin to just six laps.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:30.958 14
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:30.992 + 0.034 15
3. Alonso Ferrari 1:31.101 + 0.143 10
4. Rosberg Mercedes 1:31.188 + 0.230 15
5. Massa Ferrari 1:31.240 + 0.282 16
6. Kubica Renault 1:31.519 + 0.561 18
7. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.549 + 0.591 16
8. Schumacher Mercedes 1:31.555 + 0.597 14
9. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:31.559 + 0.601 18
10. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:31.581 + 0.623 16
11. Petrov Renault 1:31.698 + 0.740 17
12. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.703 + 0.745 16
13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:31.867 + 0.909 17
14. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:31.947 + 0.989 16
15. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:31.994 + 1.036 13
16. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:32.235 + 1.277 18
17. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:32.331 + 1.373 20
18. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:32.723 + 1.765 18
19. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:34.339 + 3.381 20
20. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:35.479 + 4.521 17
21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:36.098 + 5.140 11
22. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:36.286 + 5.328 16
23. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:36.640 + 5.682 6
24. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 1:37.178 + 6.220 18
No comments:
Post a Comment