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Alonso leads the way for Ferrari in dry final practice ahead of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone

Fernando Alonso led the way for Ferrari in a dry final practice session ahead of British Grand Prix qualifying at Silverstone

Jenson Button was the quickest McLaren driver in second, 0.153 seconds down on Alonso, with Romain Grosjean third for Lotus, and Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) completing the top six.

With no dry running at all on Friday and dark clouds closing in, there was immediately a pitlane traffic queue to emulate the ones outside the circuit, with all teams eager to make the most of the conditions.

A sign of how much work was being crammed into the hour was that soft tyres runs began just after the mid-point, with Button the first to hit the front on softs, deposing team-mate Hamilton.

The McLarens swapped places again soon afterwards, as Hamilton took his turn on softs and produced a 1m32.728s to beat Button by 0.123s.

Grosjean then hinted at impressive pace from Lotus by beating the McLarens by three tenths on hard tyres, but his time in front was only fleeting as Alonso then delivered a 1m32.167s to head the order. The championship leader had a quick spin at Club on his next lap, continuing without drama and remaining at head of the times until the finish.

Button eventually reclaimed second, just ahead of Grosjean, who improved again on softs. The second Lotus of Raikkonen was fifth, between Vettel and Hamilton.

Pastor Maldonado was seventh for Williams, with Sergio Perez eighth despite smashing his Sauber's front wing as he bounced over the grass. Team-mate Kamui Kobayashi also had a spin before taking ninth, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg's Force India.

Mercedes' Nico Rosberg had been the initial pacesetter, but had to sit out the latter part of the session with a mechanical problem, so fell to 18th.

Also in mechanical bother was Marussia's Charles Pic. The Frenchman caused a brief red flag when his car ground to a halt on the exit of Copse just after the 20-minute mark. Marussia got it running again, but a similar thing seemed to happen in the closing minutes, leaving Pic stranded on the Hangar Straight.

Pos  Driver                Team                   Time               Laps
 1.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m32.167s            21
 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m32.320s  + 0.153s  20
 3.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m32.358s  + 0.191s  25
 4.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m32.420s  + 0.253s  21
 5.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m32.454s  + 0.287s  25
 6.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m32.477s  + 0.310s  20
 7.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m32.622s  + 0.455s  21
 8.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m32.940s  + 0.773s  19
 9.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m33.046s  + 0.879s  20
10.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m33.150s  + 0.983s  19
11.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault       1m33.267s  + 1.100s  25
12.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m33.367s  + 1.200s  20
13.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m33.398s  + 1.231s  24
14.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m33.462s  + 1.295s  24
15.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m33.673s  + 1.506s  22
16.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m33.674s  + 1.507s  21
17.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m33.707s  + 1.540s  21
18.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m33.733s  + 1.566s  15
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       1m34.298s  + 2.131s  18
20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       1m34.781s  + 2.614s  20
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      1m36.605s  + 4.438s  18
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      1m37.060s  + 4.893s  14
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           1m37.269s  + 5.102s  23
24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth           1m37.429s  + 5.262s  17

All Timing Unofficial

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