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Vettel on top in final German practice session

Sebastian Vettel topped final practice ahead of qualifying in Germany, as the session once again opened to rain showers.

The Red Bull driver left it late in front of his home fans, with Fernando Alonso in second and team-mate Mark Webber in third.

As had been the case on Friday, variable weather would once again play havoc with the team’s preparations.

Although conditions would improve throughout the hour, drivers were confined to using intermediate and full wet tyres until the final third.

With the majority of drivers waiting for the track to improve, it was the Ferrari of Felipe Massa who led the way.

The First driver to set a competitive time on slick tyres was Sebastien Buemi in the Toro Rosso, who recorded a lap in 1:21.369.

Consequently, this time would soon be bettered with Mark Webber dropping into the mid-one minute eighteen seconds, as the rest of the field ventured to record some dry running.

But the Australian’s time was soon bettered by Felipe Massa, who lowered the benchmark to 1:17.171.

The times would continue to tumble during the final ten minutes of the session, with Sebastian Vettel and then Fernando Alonso the first drivers to break into the one minute sixteen seconds bracket.

However, once running the super soft rubber it was the former who would eventually come out on top setting a time of 1:15.103, over two tenths ahead of Alonso’s Ferrari.

Red Bull team-mate Webber would finish the session six tenths off the top time, with the second Ferrari a further tenth of a second behind.

Lewis Hamilton continued to make up for the time he lost on Friday morning completeing thirteen laps on his way to the sixth fastest time.

Meanwhile McLaren team-mate Jenson Button once again struggled and found himself languishing down the order in thirteenth position.

Nico Rosberg once again demonstrated Mercedes’ speed in fifth, with Michael Schumacher seventh.

Given the damp conditions which greeted the start of the session, it was unsurprising to see a number of drivers running wide. However, in reality, the hour passed without too much drama -although Adrian Sutil was forced to crawl back to the pits with a driveshaft failure and only completed 2 laps.

Pos  Driver         Team                   Time              Laps
1.   Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:15.103            18
2.   Alonso         Ferrari                1:15.387  + 0.284   21
3.   Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:15.708  + 0.605   16
4.   Massa          Ferrari                1:15.854  + 0.751   20
5.   Rosberg        Mercedes               1:16.046  + 0.943   20
6.   Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:16.207  + 1.104   13
7.   Schumacher     Mercedes               1:16.473  + 1.370   16
8.   Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:16.481  + 1.378   23 
9.   Kubica         Renault                1:16.646  + 1.543   20
10.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:16.743  + 1.640   17
11.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:16.882  + 1.779   19
12.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:16.990  + 1.887   21
13.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:17.037  + 1.934   15
14.  Petrov         Renault                1:17.148  + 2.045   20
15.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:17.220  + 2.117   19
16.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:17.341  + 2.238   21
17.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:17.538  + 2.435   22
18.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:19.193  + 4.090   11
19.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:19.607  + 4.504   10
20.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:20.533  + 5.430    9
21.  Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth           1:21.538  + 6.435   14
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:23.444  + 8.341   10
23.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:23.873  + 8.770    7
24.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes                        2

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