Vettel leads final free practice at Germany

F1 Grand Prix, GP Germany, Nürburgring

Sebastian Vettel topped the times in the last practice session ahead of qualifying for this weekend's German Grand Prix. The home driver topped teammate Mark Webber with a small margin. Fernando Alonso was again the closest competitor to the Red Bull cars.

Halfway through the session, most teams were trying out the medium tyres in longer runs. It showed that McLaren in those conditions was a close match to both Ferrari and Red Bull. The driver topping the timesheet switched rapidly between those three teams after Mercedes GP put themselves ahead earlier on in the session.

With 15 minutes left on the clock, drivers started to switch to soft tyres. First the Force India drivers of which Sutil was fastest, then Mercedes GP where Rosberg took charge, and with 9 minutes left it was Alonso who improved again.

The gap between the medium and soft tyre appears to be nearly 2 seconds a lap, a dramatic difference that could have a great influence on tomorrow's strategy.

Alonso set his best time on fresh option tyres, something neither of the other top drivers managed to do. It's interesting to see that both McLaren and Alonso need an additional lap on the tyres before they are warmed up properly. On his second lap, Webber manages to beat Alonso only to see Vettel go a bit quicker yet again.