Valencia: Vettel tops final practice

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel turned the fastest lap in his Red Bull in the final free practice session for the European Grand Prix in Valencia Saturday morning. The world champion was 0.420 seconds faster than Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa while Mark Webber was 4th in the second Red Bull
.
Jenson Button was the quickest McLaren in fifth ahead of the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, teammate Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.

The two Renaults of Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld completed the top 10.

Scuderia Toro Rosso has confirmed to GPUpdate.net that Jaime Alguersuari had switched to a new engine for Saturday morning practice in Valencia.

The decision came following problems on Friday afternoon, with the Barcelona driver having been marooned in the garage for the entire second session.

Although an auxiliary problem may have had an effect on the engine, as opposed to a full failure of the Ferrari product, technicians made the decision to swap the powerplant for the final hour-long session of this morning.

Alguersuari receives no penalty, as each driver can use eight engines every season.

Results

Pos Driver Team/Car Time Behind Laps
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m37.258s +0.000s 15
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m37.678s +0.420s 16
3. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m37.840s +0.582s 17
4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m38.068s +0.810s 13
5. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.326s +1.068s 13
6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.580s +1.322s 15
7. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.741s +1.483s 13
8. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.799s +1.541s 14
9. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m38.822s +1.564s 17
10. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m39.113s +1.855s 15
11. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m39.411s +2.153s 19
12. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.778s +2.520s 18
13. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m39.823s +2.565s 18
14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.848s +2.590s 18
15. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m39.888s +2.630s 17
16. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m39.987s +2.729s 18
17. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m40.004s +2.746s 16
18. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.239s +2.981s 20
19. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m41.267s +4.009s 15
20. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m41.690s +4.432s 18
21. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m42.557s +5.299s 18
22. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m43.243s +5.985s 17
23. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m43.309s +6.051s 18
24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m44.630s +7.372s 19