Final practice - Kovalainen takes his turn at the top 19 Jul 2008
Heikki Kovalainen set the pace for McLaren in Saturday morning’s final practice session for the German Grand Prix at a dry but windy Hockenheim, as team mate Lewis Hamilton sandwiched Ferrari interloper Felipe Massa.
Kovalainen lapped in 1m 15.621s on Bridgestone’s softer tyre (the medium here). Hamilton also used it for his 1m 15.839s, but Massa did not improve with the softer tyre on the 1m 15.693s that he set on the hard compound. Fernando Alonso was fourth with 1m 15.943s for Renault, on softs.
Sebastian Vettel continued his strong recent form for Toro Rosso with fifth fastest time and 1m 16.037s, with Jarno Trulli coming up to sixth for Toyota on 1m 16.133s from Renault’s Nelson Piquet (1m 16.161s), Red Bull’s Mark Webber (1m 16.196s) and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen (1m 16.380s), with Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m 16.405s) completing the top ten.
Then came Honda’s Jenson Button (1m 16.447s), Red Bull’s David Coulthard (1m 16.515s), Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima (1m 16.530s), Toyota’s Timo Glock (1m 16.636s), Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais (1m 16.808s), BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld (1m 16.906s) and Force India’s Adrian Sutil (1m 16.938s).
Rubens Barrichello spun again on his way to 1m 17.189s and 18th place for Honda, then came Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella (1m 17.312s) and Robert Kubica (1m 17.469s), who brought his BMW Sauber into the pits slowly partway through with what was believed to be a transmission problem.
Besides Barrichello, Sutil also spun, while Bourdais, Massa, Hamilton and Piquet all had off-course excursions.
