Fernando Alonso bounced back from a Friday crash to top the timesheets in a dry third and final practice session for this weekend's British Grand Prix. The Ferrari man, who moved to the front courtesy of a 1:32.167 effort, led McLaren rival Jenson Button by 0.153 seconds, with Romain Grosjean completing the top three.
A spell of dry weather from Friday afternoon onwards allowed the grid to complete their first slick tyre laps at Silverstone this morning, but it was far from straightforward for the thousands of fans hoping to watch the action. As fields remained waterlogged, those with public car passes were turned away from the venue in order to save space.
It was Alonso who made the most of the improved weather conditions, consistently bettering his times en route to the top spot. A late spin did nothing to dent his confidence and he held onto his advantage in the closing stages. Behind, Button appears to be back in the groove, setting his fastest time on the harder compound tyre, much to the delight of race engineer Dave Robson who hailed a 'great lap'.
Romain Grosjean and Sebastian Vettel, the two men to retire with engine altenator problems in Valencia, had trouble-free sessions on the way to third and fourth, while Kimi Räikkönen overcame a clutch of off-track excursions to deny Lewis Hamilton of a top five placement.
Pastor Maldonado was next up for Williams, with Sauber duo Sergio Pérez and Kamui Kobayashi just behind. A large off at Becketts saw Pérez lose his front wing in dramatic fashion, while Kobayashi threw away a clear chance of topping the session with an error at the final corner. Force India's Nico Hülkenberg completed the top ten.
Red Bull's Mark Webber, Ferrari's Felipe Massa and the Mercedes pairing of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg all featured outside of the top ten, while at the back of the field Charles Pic's Marussia came to a halt twice with suspected engine issues.
Qualifying begins at 1pm local time (BST) and can also be followed through the GPUpdate.net Live Report, where you can pose questions to our reporters
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:32.167 | 21 |
| 2. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:32.320 | 20 |
| 3. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 01:32.358 | 25 |
| 4. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:32.420 | 21 |
| 5. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 01:32.454 | 25 |
| 6. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:32.477 | 20 |
| 7. | P. Maldonado | Williams | 01:32.622 | 21 |
| 8. | S. Perez | Sauber | 01:32.940 | 19 |
| 9. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 01:33.046 | 20 |
| 10. | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 01:33.150 | 19 |
| Full results | ||||
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