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| © Ferrari |
Fernando Alonso was the fastest driver in the third and final practice session for the German Grand Prix in an outing which started in dry conditions on Saturday.
The Ferrari driver clocked a time of 1 minute 16.014 seconds edging the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton by less than a hundredth of a second as the threat of rain held off for most of the hour-long session.
"It was run in the dry, right up to the very last minutes, after rain had prevented any worthwhile evaluation of tyres and cars yesterday," Ferrari said in a statement. "Prior to qualifying, the programme of comparing the various aero solutions was brought to an end in preparation for the tenth round of the championship."
Drops of rain started to fall with less than eight minutes in the session remaining suggesting that qualifying later in the day could be a wet one as a cloud cover hovered over the track.
The change of weather in final stages ensured that Alonso’s time remained as the fastest after rivals were unable to post quick times on a damp track with final practice ending amid a heavy shower.
Drivers had headed out to the track almost immediately when practice began to take advantage of dry conditions as rain was expected halfway into the session, although it arrived later than forecasted.
Teams were unable to test their updates adequately after Friday’s practice sessions were disrupted by showers and tried to make up time in Saturday’s running.
Sergio Perez was third in his Sauber ahead of the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen.
The Red Bull pair of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel was next followed by Williams’ Pastor Maldonado, who had registered the fastest time in the second practice session on Friday in wet conditions.
Felipe Massa was eighth with Kamui Kobayashi and Bruno Senna rounding up the top ten.
Local favourite Michael Schumacher was down in 15th with Mercedes teammate and compatriot Nico Rosberg in 17th.
Jenson Button, who had headed out in the final ten minutes on the quicker soft tyres, was unable to capitalise and was nearly five seconds off the pace in 24th and last.