• British Grand Prix - FP3

Vettel holds Red Bull advantage ahead of qualifying

Sebastian Vettel looks fastest ahead of qualifying © Getty Images

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• Race:
• British Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso
• |
• Sebastian Vettel
• |
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Alfa Romeo
• |
• Ferrari
• |
• HRT
• |
• McLaren
• |
• Mercedes
• |
• Racing Point
• |
• Red Bull
• |
• Renault
• |
• Team Lotus
• |
• Toro Rosso
• |
• Virgin
• |
• Williams

Sebastian Vettel led the way in the final practice session before qualifying at the British Grand Prix, setting a time of 1:30.958 fractionally faster than Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber.

The Red Bulls have topped every practice session so far this weekend and look set to have the upper hand heading into the all-important qualifying session. However, as has often been the case with the team this year, there are some concerns over reliability as Vettel experienced a front wing failure at the high-speed Abbey corner on his final lap.

The nose of the car hinged down on its mounting point, causing massive understeer and forcing Vettel to abort the lap. The team fitted a new nose cone when the car was returned to the pits and will be hoping the problem is not a fundamental fault with the chassis.

Behind the Red Bulls Fernando Alonso was third fastest after setting some promising lap times on hard tyres earlier in the session. He was not able to experiment with the softer compound, as his car was taken to pieces at the end of the session and he missed out on the last 10 minutes of running. But with a time just 0.101 off the Red Bulls, he wcould well be angling for a front-row position in qualifying.

Meanwhile, McLaren's nightmare home grand prix continued with Lewis Hamilton seventh fastest and Jenson Button 12th. The team ditched its blown diffuser overnight and has now reverted to its Valencia-spec exhaust layout, but it was to little avail with Hamilton still 0.5 seconds off the pace.

Ahead of Hamilton there was a tight bunch of drivers separated by just a few tenths. Mercedes' Nico Rosberg was fourth fastest, marginally ahead of Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari and Robert Kubica's Renault. All three will be challenging for the top six in qualifying.

Michael Schumacher appeared to make some improvement over his mistake-ridden Friday practice performance, but was still over 0.3 seconds adrift of his team-mate. Pedro de la Rosa showed signs of promise for Sauber in ninth and Rubens Barrichello held position from Friday with the tenth fastest time.

Further down the field, Force India had a poor session with both drivers experiencing reliability problems and finishing outside the top ten. Adrian Sutil was forced out of the car ten minutes from the end with a gearbox problem and Tonio Liuzzi missed out on some running with hydraulic issues.

However, nothing can compare to Jarno Trulli's weekend. On Friday Fairuz Fauzy took over his car in the morning and then he completed just three laps in the afternoon session. On Saturday his Lotus continued to play up and he completed 11 laps.

At the very back of the grid Sakon Yamamoto remained about second off the pace of his team-mate Karun Chandhok and over six seconds off Vettel's best lap.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.