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Toyota and Red Bull quick

If final practice for the British Grand Prix is any indication of the status quo there may be a few surprises in store this afternoon in qualifying. While yesterday was all Red Bull, this morning went in a different direction entirely.
The session began with the track officially wet, although it was actually dry, and as such the fans who braved the chilly Northamptonshire morning were left watching a largely empty track for the first half of the session. When things did get going it was a full track for great swathes of the hour, and the Red Bull pair, while on the ball, were not the ultimate pace setters.

That honour went to Williams, a team accused of showboating in practice sessions, but one has the feeling that this is true pace, for Nico Rosberg, whose time of 1:18.899 was that fastest of the weekend, headed team mate Kazuki Nakajima by two tenths. No disrespect to Nakajima, but his pace does suggest the car has speed. Whether they translate it into qualifying form is another matter entirely.

That there is little wrong with the Toyota engine is further proven by Jarno Trulli in third position, the TF109 looking very handy indeed around the Silverstone sweeps, and Sebastian Vettel dropped into fourth position in the Red Bull, confidence abounding and surely the front runners for pole position.

Ferrari made progress with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen in fifth and sixth, the latter almost a second down on the fastest times, with Timo Glock in the second Toyota, Fernando Alonso in the Renault, Mark Webber in the second Red Bull and Rubens Barrichello in the Brawn making up the top ten.

Brawn will undoubtedly turn on the pace in qualifying, but the feeling is that this may not be as easy for Red Bull as they made it look yesterday, especially with showers forecast for qualifying time.

For the record, Lewis Hamilton came home 11th, and BMW look simply terrible.

Written: Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:10:58