Rosberg fastest in final practice

F1 Grand Prix, GP Germany, Hockenheimring

Nico Rosberg topped the times in the final free practice session ahead of qualifying for the German Grand Prix. As Mercedes continued to dominate, Fernando Alonso was once more the closest challenger, followed by the Williams drivers.

Still in burning hot conditions, the final practice of qualifying got underway with Mercedes being particularly active on track. The team aimed to get some more feedback from the tyres, made more obvious by the team asking Hamilton not to back off for traffic in order to get a realistic idea of how the tyres behave under stress.

By the halfway mark, Alonso and Ricciardo were the only ones not to have set a time. Raikkonen on the other hand sat atop the timesheet after he became the first man to switch to the supersoft tyres. 8 laps later though, the Finn's session is over as Ferrari opt to change an element in the fuel pump to avoid issues in qualifying.

Max Chilton is also stuck in the garage after just 7 laps as Marussia investigate an electrical glitch on the car. 10 minutes from the end, Caterham's Ericsson is also out of his car early with a hydraulics issue on his Caterham CT05.

When Ricciardo did eventually end up on track, he soon reported balance issues and understeer, similar behaviour as Sebastian Vettel is experiencing. The latter repeatedly went wide and off through turn 1.

At the very end of the session, with everybody doing shorter runs on the quick but highly wearing super softs, Rosberg again emerged on top, quicker than his teammate who is told he's losing time particularly in the hairpin.

Williams is again well in the mix while Red Bull Racing appear to be slightly further away than they were on Friday.