Sebastian Vettel has sent out a statement of intent to Mercedes ahead of qualifying today by finishing quickest in the final practice session at the Nurburgring.
The German driver, who has never won his home GP, finished a full six-tenths clear of compatriot Nico Rosberg in P2 whilst teammate Mark Webber completed the top three ahead of the Ferraris.
FP3 got underway as the Nurburgring bathed in bright sunshine following rather overcast conditions for the first two practice sessions on Friday. Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg were the first drivers out on track on medium tire, followed by Sergio Perez who laid down the first marker of 1:33.684. The Mexican driver was quickly beaten by his teammate, Jenson Button, who moved one second clear before the Mercedes pairing of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton emerged onto the track. They moved over half a second clear of the rest of the field, once again underlining the impressive pace of the W04 car.
Red Bull were yet to respond though, biding their time before sending Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber out onto the track. They did not hang about, sending the timesheets purple as Vettel eased into 1st place with a lap of 1:31.294, followed by Webber – winner of this race in 2009 – who was just 0.004 seconds slower than his teammate on the medium tire. Ferrari looked to take advantage of an empty track during the middle of the session, but Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa could not apply too much pressure to the leaders, going 6th and 8th respectively. Valtteri Bottas told his engineer that the wind at turns one and two was making braking difficult whilst Maldanado had an off at turn seven, but he was able to continue. Any running for Williams was a great achievement following a fire in their garage this morning.
The final ten minutes saw the teams fit the soft tire to their cars in order to run a qualifying simulation. Ferrari were the first to strike as Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa went 1st and 2nd respectively but Rosberg soon re-established Mercedes’ dominance to pull four-tenths clear. Hamilton cold only lap half a second slower than his teammate as Red Bull emerged for the final time in FP3 at the Nurburgring. Despite going quickest in sectors one and two, Webber could only managed P2 on his first attempt, a mere 0.018 seconds behind Rosberg before Vettel succeeded in overthrowing the Silver Arrow at the top of the leaderboads, producing a fine lap to go 0.676 seconds clear.
The battle for pole does appear to be between Red Bull and Mercedes, with the two teams dominating qualifying so far this season. It is hard to see that trend breaking this weekend, although the stage will be set for a great race on Sunday.