Friday, June 25, 2010

Vettel tops European GP practice

Webber's Red Bull crosses the Valencia circuit bridge
Mark Webber's Red Bull crosses the Valencia circuit's bridge

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel topped the times in the final practice session for the European Grand Prix.

The German snatched the fastest time from Renault's Robert Kubica in the dress rehearsal for Saturday's qualifying session in Valencia.

Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber was third, ahead of the surprising Force India of Adrian Sutil.

Spain's Fernando Alonso was fifth, with McLaren's Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton completing the top 10.

Alonso's Ferrari topped the times with 10 minutes of the session remaining, before he was the first of the leading contenders to try a run on the super-soft 'option' tyres.

But this, his warm-up run for qualifying, began with a slide wide at the first braking point, and the Spaniard never seemed to recover.

That left Vettel, Webber and Kubica in turn to top the times before Vettel set the fastest time of the session as he took the chequered flag, one of the last drivers to do so.

Although it is impossible to tell what levels of fuel each car was carrying, Kubica's form looked good on this, Renault's first weekend with a Red Bull-style blown diffuser . This involves routing the exhaust gases around the diffuser to produce more downforce.

JONATHAN LEGARD BLOG

Rubens Barrichello, winner in Valencia last year for Brawn, took an encouraging sixth-fastest time in his Williams, ahead of Vitantonio Liuzzi, who made it two Force Indias in the top seven, and Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

McLaren appeared to struggle as Button and Hamilton propped up the top 10. Button was experimenting by adding a downforce-enhancing Gurney flap to the rear wing for his final run.

Qualifying starts at 1300 (BST) and can be followed on BBC One, Radio 5 live and this website.

cheap generic viagra | online pharmacy without prescription

No comments: