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Rosberg fastest in final Britain practice

Nico Rosberg set the practice pace yet again in the Saturday morning session at Silverstone, this time leading his team-mate Kazuki Nakajima in a Williams one-two

Their late surge pushed Jarno Trulli back to third, with yesterday's pace-setter Sebastian Vettel fourth for Red Bull.

Jenson Button's low-key weekend continued as the championship leader managed only 12th position, one place behind fellow home driver Lewis Hamilton's McLaren.

With the track damp at the beginning of the session following early rain, it was a long time before anyone came out for a serious run.

Renault's Nelson Piquet proved the track was ready for slicks after 23 minutes, and from then on the times tumbled and the positions changed at a frenetic rate as the circuit conditions improved with every minute.

Rosberg took several turns on top as he repeatedly grabbed first position back again after being usurped, with his team-mate Nakajima, both Toyotas, Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais and both Red Bulls also featuring in first place at times before the soft tyre qualifying simulation runs began on the now bone dry track with ten minutes to go.

It was Felipe Massa (Ferrari) who was first to beat Vettel's hard tyre benchmark, despite running wide out of Woodcote.

The Ferrari then dropped from first to fourth in a matter of seconds as Trulli and the two Williams jumped into the top three positions.

Both Rosberg and Nakajima had time for second flying laps too, and for a few moments it looked like the Japanese driver might emerge fastest from a Formula 1 practice session for the first time as he pushed Trulli off the top spot.

But Rosberg was on a typical last minute charge, and he duly beat his team-mate by 0.203s.

Behind Trulli and Vettel, the two Ferraris completed the top six, ahead of Timo Glock, who escaped a wild trip across the grass at Becketts late in the session.

Fernando Alonso was eighth for Renault, ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello in the quicker of the two Brawns.

Force India did not maintain its top three form from Friday, but both Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella managed to beat the BMWs, Sebastien Buemi and McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:18.899           20
 2.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:19.102 + 0.203   19
 3.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:19.125 + 0.226   15
 4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:19.371 + 0.472   15
 5.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:19.596 + 0.697   19
 6.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:19.855 + 0.956   13
 7.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:19.868 + 0.969   19
 8.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:19.917 + 1.018   14
 9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:19.946 + 1.047   15
10.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:20.028 + 1.129   14
11.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:20.048 + 1.149   16
12.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:20.157 + 1.258   17
13.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:20.232 + 1.333   18
14.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:20.459 + 1.560   17
15.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:20.548 + 1.649   15
16.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:20.572 + 1.673   17
17.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:20.638 + 1.739   18
18.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:20.696 + 1.797   20
19.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:21.024 + 2.125   11
20.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:21.039 + 2.140   13

All timing unofficial

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