GP – Free Practice 3: Alonso proves that Renault is in the running!

Fernando Alonso recorded the fastest time in the third and final practice session for the British Grand Prix. Conditions were wet, but a drying track at Silverstone led to increased competitiveness of the cars throughout the session.

Mark Webber’s Red Bull is second, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen’s McLaren and the impressive Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso).

After a shower that soaked the track before the session, the times were initially slower by 15 seconds compared to yesterday with ‘full wet’ tires before switching to ‘intermediates’.

Inevitably, this means that the ranking changed throughout the session according to the improvement of the track over the minutes.

With a little less than 20 minutes remaining, Nick Heidfeld was the first driver to switch to dry tires. His decision proved to be the right one as he immediately beat Felipe Massa by four seconds. His time improved by another two seconds on the following lap.

The top spot was then attributed to Alonso, Timo Glock (Toyota), and Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) before Webber came to snatch it from these drivers with nine minutes remaining.

Kovalainen was the first to beat the Australian with a time of 1:21.266, by just over half a second.

Many other drivers followed Kovalainen’s example, but ultimately it was Alonso with a time of 1’20”740 who set the day’s record on his final lap. Moments later, Webber secured second position, 0.248 seconds behind, while Vettel was just 0.011 seconds away from Kovalainen’s third place.

Lewis Hamilton completes the top five with his McLaren. The Ferraris are far behind with Räikkönen in ninth and Felipe Massa in 12th.

Despite the difficult conditions causing numerous minor incidents, most of the drivers managed to pull through.

David Coulthard had to spend a large part of the session in the pits due to a technical problem with his Red Bull. He is in last place.