German GP: Sebastian Vettel blitzes final practice for Red Bull

Mercedes and Red Bull had topped a practice session each on Friday, but it was the latter that took charge on Saturday morning.

Vettel was quickest in the first part of the session on the harder rubber, before being swiftly demoted in the final 10 minutes as the softs offered time gains as big as two seconds for some cars.

Fernando Alonso's Ferrari was first to reap the benefits, with Rosberg's Mercedes then doing a 1m30.193s going into the final minute to take the top spot.

But Vettel still had a lap to come, and a 1m29.517s on softs blew Rosberg's time away by 0.676 seconds.

Mark Webber was third in the second Red Bull, ahead of the two Ferraris, as Felipe Massa closed to within 0.018s of Alonso.

Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean were back in sixth and eighth for Lotus, sandwiching an unhappy Lewis Hamilton, who made his dislike of his Mercedes' behaviour clear over team order.

Nico Hulkenberg and Adrian Sutil made it four Germans in the top 10 as they took ninth and 10th for Sauber and Force India respectively.

Pastor Maldonado's Williams was repaired from its morning KERS issue in time to join the session from the beginning, although he was another to voice complaints over car handling by radio. He was 17th.

After his Friday illness, Jules Bianchi returned to the Marussia cockpit and was 20th quickest.


Pos Driver               Team                  Time       Gap      Laps
 1. Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault      1m29.517s           19
 2. Nico Rosberg         Mercedes              1m30.193s  +0.676s  19
 3. Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault      1m30.211s  +0.694s  18
 4. Fernando Alonso      Ferrari               1m30.621s  +1.104s  16
 5. Felipe Massa         Ferrari               1m30.639s  +1.122s  17
 6. Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault         1m30.671s  +1.154s  19
 7. Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes              1m30.744s  +1.227s  20
 8. Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault         1m30.781s  +1.264s  18
 9. Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari        1m30.966s  +1.449s  20
10. Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  1m31.009s  +1.492s  18
11. Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes      1m31.326s  +1.809s  22
12. Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari        1m31.405s  +1.888s  20
13. Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes  1m31.733s  +2.216s  21
14. Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m31.855s  +2.338s  18
15. Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes      1m31.855s  +2.338s  23
16. Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m31.898s  +2.381s  19
17. Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault      1m31.969s  +2.452s  20
18. Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault      1m32.036s  +2.519s  23
19. Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault      1m33.230s  +3.713s  19
20. Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth     1m33.470s  +3.953s  22
21. Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault      1m33.964s  +4.447s  21
22. Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth     1m34.683s  +5.166s  20