Vettel concludes European GP practice on top

Practice for the European GP concluded on Saturday morning with Sebastian Vettel on top of the field.

Having been the first out as the track was opened, Lucas di Grassi was the first to post a time on the board with just over a quarter of the session gone.

The Toro Rossos of Alguersuari and Buemi then took charge at the front until Lewis Hamilton upped the pace. The Briton completed his second flying lap in 1’39’’338 to edge Buemi and come on top.

Lap times continued to improve as the track conditions got better and everybody got up to speed. Kubica and Sutil managed to go faster than the McLaren driver before the halfway point and, with thirty minutes to go, Sutil was leading from Kubica and Hamilton.

Vettel stormed at the front not long after with a 1’38’’884. The Red Bull driver was the first to break the 1’39 barrier. In the meantime, Fernando Alonso started moving up the order and took his heavily updated Ferrari up to 2nd fastest. As Felipe Massa completed his first timed lap of the session, Alonso and Vettel continued to up the pace and were joined at the front by Webber and Rosberg.

The Spaniard still managed to improve and topped the timesheets with a fastest 1’38’’713. But it was a close contest as Webber and Vettel were just 14 thousandths of a second slower than him. That was enough to spur Alonso on and he completed his next flying lap in 1’38’’513, two tenths clear of the Red Bulls.

As Webber and Vettel were back in the pits, Robert Kubica came really close to beat Alonso’s reference time and slotted in P2. With fifteen minutes to go, 0.214s covered the top four with Alonso leading from Kubica, Webber and Vettel.

Most of the drivers went out for a last run on the softer tyres in the final part of the session.

Vettel was the first to improve and take over at the front, only for his teammate Mark Webber to relegate him to 2nd fastest. It was then Robert Kubica’s turn to take the lead with a lap completed in 1’38’’154.

But there was more to come from Vettel… the German found a clear lap in the very last seconds and ended the session on top with a fastest 1’38’’052.

Kubica was 2nd fastest with Webber third. Force India’s Adrian Sutil pipped Alonso for fourth. Rubens Barrichello was a good sixth fastest for Williams. Liuzzi, Massa, Button and Hamilton completed the top ten.

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was eleventh fastest while his teammate was only fifteenth fastest.

The eighteen fastest drivers were covered by just 1.647s.