Red Bull lead Ferrari in final practice

2011 German GP third practice

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Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Nurburgring, 2011

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.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’30.91615
22Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’31.0490.13316
35Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’31.1380.22212
43Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’31.5780.66213
54Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’31.6230.70714
68Nico RosbergMercedes1’31.6940.77819
76Felipe MassaFerrari1’32.1441.22813
814Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’32.3911.47520
97Michael SchumacherMercedes1’32.5231.60716
1012Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’32.7511.83518
1110Vitaly PetrovRenault1’32.7771.86118
1215Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’32.8131.89721
139Nick HeidfeldRenault1’33.0722.15618
1411Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’33.1792.26317
1517Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’33.5312.61520
1616Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’33.6712.75520
1718Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’33.9483.03221
1819Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’34.1253.20919
1920Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’35.3854.46913
2024Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’36.7245.80821
2123Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’36.8045.88823
2225Jerome D’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’36.8945.97823
2321Karun ChandhokLotus-Renault1’36.9596.04318
2422Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’37.5546.63822

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Total laps
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’32.2681’32.0841’30.91670
2Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’32.2171’31.7111’31.04974
3Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’31.8941’31.8791’31.13880
4Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’32.9961’32.7241’31.57859
5Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’33.6281’33.2251’31.62353
6Nico RosbergMercedes1’33.7871’32.5571’31.69484
7Felipe MassaFerrari1’32.6811’32.3541’32.14472
8Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’33.8321’33.2111’32.39181
9Michael SchumacherMercedes1’33.8631’32.4111’32.52378
10Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’36.8421’34.9961’32.75182
11Vitaly PetrovRenault1’34.0941’33.1381’32.77762
12Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’33.2991’32.81355
13Nick HeidfeldRenault1’35.4441’33.0981’33.07257
14Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’35.3891’34.3441’33.17975
15Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’36.3711’34.1131’33.53176
16Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’36.8821’34.4911’33.67182
17Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’33.85826
18Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’35.3711’33.94844
19Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’35.1151’34.4871’34.12579
20Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’36.3921’35.7531’35.38584
21Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’40.1091’36.9401’36.72476
22Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’38.1451’36.80454
23Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’40.4281’37.3131’36.89478
24Karun ChandhokLotus-Renault1’38.7651’37.2481’36.95970
25Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’39.2791’40.7371’37.55451
26Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1’38.50422

2011 German Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    24 comments on “Red Bull lead Ferrari in final practice”

    1. Alonso still had tyre life.

    2. I still think Alonso will have the edge going into Quali…if it doesn’t rain that is.

    3. Didn’t see the session, so I am only going off the lap times above, but really really not looking good for Ricciardo….

      1. 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.

        1. 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.

    4. Heikki has been doing a great job on lotus.

    5. 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.

    6. Well he’s 7 tenths slower than Liuzzi…Massa is a second slower than Alonso so i wouldn’t worry too much.

    7. 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.

      1. 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.

    8. 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.

      1. 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.

      2. 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.

        1. Massa needs to improve for his own reasons – but it’s not his business to win the drivers’ championship for Alonso.

          1. 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.

          2. 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

          3. 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.

    9. 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.

    10. Hope rani doesn’t spoil real pole fight among bulls & one horse..

    11. 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…

      1. 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

        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.

    12. 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.

    13. Rosberg is good as he’s the only “outsider” to sometimes beat one of the first 6 drivers.

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