Vettel Fastest in Final Practice at Silverstone as Blown Diffuser Row Rumbles On

Sebastian Vettel was the fastest man in the third free practice session at Silverstone today, as the Formula 1 teams finally got their first chance of the weekend to run on a dry track.

Fernando Alonso was second fastest and Mark Webber finished the session third.

Off track there were behind-the-scenes discussions going on between race director Charlie Whiting and Red Bull's Christian Horner and Adrian Newey over the topic of off-throttle blown diffusers.

After the two wet sessions yesterday, there was finally an opportunity for the teams put on some dry Pirelli tyres at Silverstone this morning, and collect some valuable dry-weather data.

Jaime Alguersuari was first to set a lap time – a 1:38.936 – over ten seconds faster than Felipe Massa's fastest time from yesterday. This was quickly beaten by Michael Schumacher though, who was clearly testing the limits of the track, as demonstrated by a brief spin.

Just after Schumacher had set his time though, a few drops of rain started falling. This did not stop Mark Webber though, who put in a lap 1.5 seconds faster than Schumacher.

Halfway into the session, as the track began to dry out, drivers started doing some meaningful laps on the option tyres. Jaime Agluersuari was, as is custom, one of the first to set a lap, and went back of the top of the timesheets. Again, his time there was brief, as Nico Rosberg got the fastest lap down to 1:33.044.

With just under 20 minutes remaining, Alonso took over at the top of the timesheets with a lap of 1:32.843. He improved with a lap of 1:31.464 ten minutes later.

With just over three minutes of the session, just after Christian Horner and Adrian Newey were seen storming back from race control, Sebastian Vettel who, up until this moment, had been keeping a low profile this weekend set a time of 1:31.401, beating Alonso's best effort by 0.063 seconds.

Vettel had a go at beating his best lap, but the rain started falling again as the chequered flag fell, and he could not improve.

British Grand Prix 2011: Free Practice 3

Pos	N^o	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:31.401	21
2	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:31.464	22
3	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull	1:31.829	11
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:32.169	22
5	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1:32.496	16
6	4	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:32.956	21
7	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	1:33.014	22
8	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:33.044	20
9	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber	1:33.264	20
10	15	Paul di Resta	Force India	1:33.423	21
11	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:33.551	21
12	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India	1:33.660	21
13	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	1:33.842	18
14	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams	1:33.905	20
15	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:34.042	19
16	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso	1:34.329	17
17	18	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso	1:34.799	21
18	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1:34.822	22
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Team Lotus	1:35.225	11
20	21	Jarno Trulli	Team Lotus	1:36.905	22
21	24	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing	1:37.614	16
22	25	Jerome D'Ambrosio	Virgin Racing	1:38.068	21
23	22	Daniel Ricciardo	Hispania Racing	1:38.289	22
24	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Hispania Racing	1:38.568	20