Kovalainen tops final practice in Germany
Heikki Kovalainen set the pace for McLaren in the final free practice session at Hockenheim
The Finn beat Ferrari's Felipe Massa by 0.072 seconds at the end of the session, with Lewis Hamilton taking third ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso and the consistently impressive Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso).
Even before the late soft tyre runs, Kovalainen had been the man to beat for much of the session. He usurped early pace-setter Vettel with a 1:16.219 lap - 0.213 seconds quicker than the Toro Rosso - after 20 minutes, and then went 0.361 seconds faster on his next run a quarter of an hour later.
That kept the Finn on top until Massa bolted on a fresh set of harder tyres with 17 minutes to go and improved to 1:15.693, one and a half tenths clear of Kovalainen.
But when the field switched to the softer compound Bridgestones for their last runs, Kovalainen found more time and edged Massa out of first position by lapping in 1:15.621, while the Brazilian failed to improve on his final flying lap.
Kovalainen's teammate Hamilton had to settle for third, having gone off the road briefly on the way out of the stadium section on his final run.
Vettel battled with the front-runners throughout the session and looked set for fourth until Alonso snuck ahead of him in the closing seconds.
Nelson Piquet put the second Renault seventh, behind Jarno Trulli's Toyota, with Mark Webber (Red Bull), Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) and Nico Rosberg (Williams) completing the top ten, the latter having briefly been quickest in the early running.
Raikkonen was delayed by yellow flags on his first soft tyre run then had a sideways moment on his second, leaving him 0.759 seconds off the pace.
BMW's low-key weekend continued, with Robert Kubica slowing on track in the final part of the session after complaining over the radio that his car was pulling to one side under power. He made it back to the pits but did not re-emerge for a soft tyre run so ended the morning slowest of all.
Apart from miscellaneous trips onto the asphalt run-off areas, the session saw few incidents, with Adrian Sutil providing the most notable error when he spun into the gravel on his last run.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:15.621 18 2. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:15.693 + 0.072 21 3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:15.839 + 0.218 21 4. Alonso Renault (B) 1:15.943 + 0.322 18 5. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:16.037 + 0.416 24 6. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:16.133 + 0.512 25 7. Piquet Renault (B) 1:16.161 + 0.540 21 8. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:16.196 + 0.575 19 9. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:16.380 + 0.759 19 10. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:16.405 + 0.784 20 11. Button Honda (B) 1:16.447 + 0.826 22 12. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:16.515 + 0.894 19 13. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:16.530 + 0.909 18 14. Glock Toyota (B) 1:16.636 + 1.015 27 15. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:16.808 + 1.187 23 16. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:16.906 + 1.285 24 17. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:16.938 + 1.317 20 18. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:17.189 + 1.568 20 19. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:17.312 + 1.691 22 20. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:17.469 + 1.848 15 All timing unofficial
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