Final practice for the German grand prix gave no other pointers than that this will be a close fought qualifying session where Ferraro and McLaren are concerned.
With the final order reading Heikki Kovalainen ahead of Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton, and only two tenths of a second across the three, it’s anyone’s game and even the presence of Kimi Raikkonen in only ninth position does not detract, as the Finn is hardly known for his propensity for quick practice laps.
Fourth place went to Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard again getting the best out of the Renault R28 with a late session run, and fifth to Sebastian Vettel, Germany’s rising star having been quick in all sessions this weekend and clearly a force to be reckoned with at his home race.
Jarno Trulli continued his consistent for this year, the Italian who could rightly be considered as the forgotten man of F1 coming home just half a second off the front running pace in the Toyota, while Nelson Piquet had one of his better performances with a close seventh fastest. Piquet’s problem is that the good performances are less frequent than the lacklustre ones – he needs to get on top of that, and quickly.
Eighth went to Mark Webber, close in attendance with the two cars in front but out-paced by the Ferrari-powered ‘sister car’ of Vettel, with the final top ten runners being Raikkonen and Nico Rosberg in the Williams.
Top Honda was Button in 11th, Bourdais had his usual inferior-to-Vettel run, and the Force India pair came home 17th (Sutil) and 19th for Fisichella, the faster man a creditable 1.3 seconds off the fastest time, and just a tenth off a time that would take him into the second qualifying session. Interestingly, Sutil recorded the fastest straight-line speed of anyone bar Massa, some 315kph.
No mention of BMW? Heidfeld was 16th and Kubica last of all – the boys from Hinwil were not trying, which may mean they have something to hide.
Written: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:24:13
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