British GP: Vettel tops practice 3

Sebastian Vettel
Red Bull

(GMM) Red Bull dominated the final practice session at sunny Silverstone, but fastest man Sebastian Vettel had a scary moment on Saturday morning.

The entire nose section of the German's RB6 came loose, which if a chassis problem could prove a major obstacle for the team ahead of qualifying in 90 minutes.

It was a scary moment for the 23-year-old and 2009 British grand prix winner, as he ran wide at the ultra-fast new Abbey corner.

But mechanics fitted a new nose in the garage and appeared satisfied that the problem is solved.

McLaren, having experimentally run a blown exhaust on Friday, still did not look quick after reverting to the Valencia spec, despite sending test driver Gary Paffett back to Woking by helicopter to trial solutions in the simulator.

"We will persist with it," Paffett told the BBC, "and hopefully we'll test it out see where it went wrong and have it improved by the time we get to Hockenheim."

Red Bull's Mark Webber, just three hundredths behind his teammate on Saturday morning, said: "McLaren are a class operation and will be back."

Just a tenth off the pace was Ferrari's Fernando Alonso on soft Bridgestone tires, and he was merely a tenth quicker than Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes. Ferrari's Felipe Massa was just eight hundredths slower than his double world champion teammate as Ferrari showed signs of offering the stiffest challenge to Red Bull.

Results

POS

DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT TIME BEHIND
1 Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 01:30.958 0.000
2 Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 01:30.992 0.034
3 Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari 01:31.101 0.143
4 Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes GP 01:31.188 0.230
5 Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari 01:31.240 0.282
6 Robert Kubica Poland Renault 01:31.519 0.561
7 Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes 01:31.549 0.591
8 Michael Schumacher Germany Mercedes GP 01:31.555 0.597
9 Pedro de la Rosa Spain BMW Sauber-Ferrari 01:31.559 0.601
10 Rubens Barrichello Brazil Williams-Cosworth 01:31.581 0.623
11 Vitaly Petrov Russia Renault 01:31.698 0.740
12 Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes 01:31.703 0.745
13 Nico Hulkenberg Germany Williams-Cosworth 01:31.867 0.909
14 Kamui Kobayashi Japan BMW Sauber-Ferrari 01:31.947 0.989
15 Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 01:31.994 1.036
16 Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari 01:32.235 1.277
17 Jaime Alguersuari Spain Toro Rosso-Ferrari 01:32.331 1.373
18 Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy Force India-Mercedes 01:32.723 1.765
19 Heikki Kovalainen Finland Lotus-Cosworth 01:34.339 3.381
20 Lucas di Grassi Brazil Virgin-Cosworth 01:35.479 4.521
21 Jarno Trulli Italy Lotus-Cosworth 01:36.098 5.140
22 Karun Chandhok India HRT-Cosworth 01:36.286 5.328
23 Timo Glock Germany Virgin-Cosworth 01:36.640 5.682
24 Sakon Yamamoto Japan HRT-Cosworth 01:37.178 6.220