Practice 3: Vettel heads Renault powered trio

Sebastian Vettel was fastest in the European GP final free practice session

Jun.26 (YallaF1.com) It took a while for the final free practice session, of the European Grand Prix weekend, to get going but when it did it was almost as exciting as a qualifying session as all the top guns gave it their best shot to conquer the psychological high ground with qualifying a couple of hours away.

Fans watch the action in Valencia

At the end of the session, held under sunny blue skies, it was Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel who topped the timing screens after spending most of the session near the summit but finally making it his own in the dying minutes. No doubt assisted by Adrian Newey’s interpretation of the F-duct system that they sorely missed prior to Valencia…

Renault’s Robert Kubica ended second best after a spate of flyers in the final fifteen minutes saw him fastest of all. Third fastest was Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who too had a spell at the top of the timing screens, making it a top three for Renault powered drivers.

Adrian Sutil is hot in Valencia

Fourth quickest and surprise of the session was Force India’s Adrian Sutil who is simply relishing driving at the Valencia seaside street circuit.

Local hero Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) spent most of the session top of the timing screens running more laps than most ended the session fifth fastest.

Another surprise was Rubens Barrichello (Williams) who ended sixth quickest ahead of Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India) who was seventh.

Force India boss Vijay Mallya pumped his fist as the session came to a close, both his drivers were quicker than all four other Mercedes powered top guns.

Fernando Alonso relishes driving on home soil

Felipe Massa (Ferrari) was eighth best and, compared to his team mate Alonso, is quite simply struggling on a number of fronts. The Brazilian appears not to have the confidence (Alonso has) in the F10 and is clearly not on a good setup in Valencia as the Ferrari steps out just about everywhere. Worrying timers for Felipinho…

Next up were the McLaren Mercedes championship leading pair with Jenson Button ninth best and Lewis Hamilton 10th. After a strong start to the weekend the Woking squad has dropped towards the wrong end of the top ten. Rival upgrades look to be doing the business at McLaren’s expense.

Also alarmingly out of contention were the Merceds GP pair with Nico Rosberg, who was fastest of all on Friday morning, only managing 11th best time while Michael Schumacher struggled all session long, ending 15th fastest.

Thus the scene is set for an intriguing qualifying session which as always is vital as pole position or at least a good grid spot, perhaps more so on a narrow street venue such as Valencia, is at a premium.

Practice 3 – 26 June 2010