Morning everyone, and welcome to live coverage of final practice for the European Grand Prix from ESPNF1. After a close second session yesterday, will we see Ferrari and McLaren furhter closing the gap to Red Bull? |
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Fernando Alonso was the quickest man in FP2, ahead of Lewis Hamilton. But have the new engine map regulations really closed the pack up? It's going to be a busy day for Jaime Alguersuari, who missed all of Friday's second session, and an even busier one for Paul di Resta who only completed seven laps all day after Nico Hulkenberg crashed his car early in the morning. |
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Now, this hour-long session is likely to see plenty of action with the track cleaning up further after it started off very dusty yesterday, but we still want your comments. If you'd like to get in touch then you can do so using the link at the top of this page or via Twitter @ESPNF1. |
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And the session is underway, predictably it is Alguersuari is first man out as he tries to make up for time lost yesterday. |
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Air temperature is already 26C and track temperature 34C, and all of the teams (and Pirelli itself) are heading in to an unknown today as those figures are only set to rise considerably. How the tyres react over the weekend is going to be crucial once again. |
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Vettel tries a practice start as he leaves the pit lane; he ran a Silverstone-spec engine map to see what the effect was likely to be when the off-throttle diffuser ban kicks in, so he will be looking for more time on track this morning preparing for Sunday's race. |
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Lewis Hamilton is the last man to complete an installation lap, and he has the track to himself at the moment. |
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And now the track is quiet again. |
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We can expect to see qualifying style runs later in the session, as well as some heavy fuel runs as the teams analyse how the car will react both in qualifying and race trim. |
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Christian Horner tells the BBC that he thinks Vettel and Hamilton would be "interesting" together in the same team, but when asked about his future driver line-up he says "we are happy with our drivers, why would we want to change?" |
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Horner also says that it's a shame that the new regulations are being enforced mid-season, and that they will potentially have "an impact on one team". |
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Finally the V8s (which will be replaced by 1.6 litre V6 turbos in 2014) pierce the silence, as d'Ambrosio, Trulli and Liuzzi head out, closely followed by Glock, Karthikeyan, Perez and Alguersuari. |
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We're still yet to see a timed lap, but d'Ambrosio will be the first to change that... |
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And there it is, a 1:46.910 is first from d'Ambrosio. |
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Trulli then beats it by over 1.5s, a 1:45.364 |
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These early runs are all being done on the medium compound, which the drivers say is hard to switch on. |
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Alguersuari now goes quickest with a 1:42.477 |
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A very busy track now, and Michael Schumacher locks up in to turn one and has to take to the escape road. |
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Heidfeld goes quickest with a 1:41.903, but Schumacher's going faster until he gets blocked towards the end of the lap by Sergio Perez and backs off. |
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The quickest time of Friday was Alonso's lap of 1:37.968, so you can see how the track has lost a bit of grip overnight again. |
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Hamilton goes third fastest, as Massa sets a new quickest time, a 1:40.891 |
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Alonso is the first man under 1m40s today, a 1:39.743 |
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Di Resta locks up in to the final corner as he gets held up behind a Ferrari. |
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Rosberg is now second fastest, but still 0.8s slower than Alonso. We're yet to see either Red Bull car after their installation laps. |
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Felipe Massa sets the fastest middle sector so far, which is the sector where the DRS is most effective. Mercedes has a good DRS for top speed, and Renault has brought a new rear wing with a bigger DRS slot. |
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Button goes third with his first flying lap of the day. Vettel and Webber are both on track now. |
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Alonso improves again to a 1:39.506, now 0.5s quicker than Massa and Button. |
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Heidfeld seems happy with his car, but Petrov less so as Renault (OfficialLRGP) on Twitter says: "Planned set up change to Vitaly's car, some rear end suspension action. Nick's car gets a polish and plank inspection" |
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Alonso has a bit of a moment in to turn 20, losing the rear end but collecting the car. No such problems for Button as he goes just 0.02s slower than Alonso. |
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Webber's first lap is a 1:39.738 |
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Vettel then goes fastest with his second flying lap, a 1:38.999. Red Bull is incredibly strong in the final sector where there are more high-speed corners. |
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Webber asks if there is any problem with his tyre pressures over the radio as the car isn't handling quite as he'd like. |
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Vettel improves again to a 1:38.694, as Perez becomes the first man on to the soft tyre. |
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Perez goes fifth quickest, one second slower than Vettel's time. |
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Schumacher now on a soft ture run, and on a fast lap |
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Schumacher was 0.1s up before the final sector but ends the lap 0.1s down on Vettel, despite having the soft tyres on. |
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Vettel's engineer tells him he needs to find a bit more time in sector one, and he duly obliges with the fastest first sector. Rosberg now on soft tyres... |
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And he beats Vettel's first sector time before beating the whole lap time, a 1:38.580 putting him 0.1s quicker than anyone else. |
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Massa now on soft tyres, trying to find a gap for a quick lap. |
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Karhikeyan runs wide at turn ten, while Maldonado does the same after locking up in to turn 12 |
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Massa is 0.001s quicker than Rosberg in sector one, and now 0.1s up in sector two... |
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Massa goes quickest by 0.3s, a 1:38.277 |
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On track now is Massa, Alonso, Buemi, Petrov, di Resta, Trulli, Kovalainen, Glock and d'Ambrosio |
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Alonso going much quicker than his team-mate... |
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He ends the lap 0.6s quicker than Massa, a 1:37.678 is the fastest time of the weekend so far. |
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Massa improves with the fastest final sector of the session, now 0.1s slower than Alonso |
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Button leaves the pits to join Heidfeld, Kovalainen, Alonso, Nassa and Barrichello |
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We're still waiting to see soft tyre runs from the McLarens and Red Bulls |
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Just eight minutes to go, so it's like the final session of qualifying as Hamilton joins the track too. |
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Heidfeld's best lap on soft tyres is 1.4s slower than Alonso |
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Button's first lap on soft tyres is third quickest, and it's 0.6 slower than Alonso, with all the time lost in the final sector. |
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Both Red Bulls are now out, with Hamilton on a fast lap but he has to swerve to avoid Schumacher and backs off. Schumacher was trying to get out of the way as Hamilton came round the hairpin, but they both made the same initial move. |
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Hamilton is a full second slower than Alonso, which could point to more fuel on board. Webber goes third quickest 0.4s slower than the Ferrari, and Vettel is now on a quick lap. |
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Vettel may have been held up slightly on that lap, but he still went 0.4s quicker than Alonso. Ominous. |
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Schumacher has a spin at turn eight, before Sutil and Maldonado fight for position in to turn two. Sutil ran wide in turn one, so Maldonado came up the inside of him, but Sutil wasn't happy and came back around the outside of two before taking track position up the inside in to turn three. They were very close to touching... |
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The flag falls with Vettel going even quicker again. |
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Vettel's lap is ruined by yellow flags, as Kobayashi drops it coming in to the last corner and slides sideways off the track at high speed. He just nudges the wall with his nose to damage it slightly, but he has absolutely ruined a set of soft tyres. |
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So the session ends with Vettel quickest from Alonso, Massa, Webber, Button and Rosberg. Either McLaren were hiding some pace or they are in real trouble ahead of qualifying. Which is it? Join us for qualifying in a couple of hours to find out. |