The British Grand Prix - Practice 3 Formula 1

coverage of the British Grand Prix. If you have been watching the

repeats, that is the third time you have seen these titles this morning.

Congratulations for sticking with it. This is the last practice

session. One more hour for the teams to get prepared. Effectively, the

first session yesterday was a waste of time because it was wet and the

forecast is to be dry or weekend. A lot of work in the second session. A

lot of the teams did well. But it was a struggle for fair roaring.

Felipe Massa crashed. We can go down to the pit lane. What is the latest

on the story, Tom? Ther RA have had a busy evening.

They have completed Masser 's car. It has just arrived in the pits

garrotte. This is going to be his first proper dry lap of the weekend.

An important session coming up. Button and Hamilton yesterday were

not happy of -- happy. Hamilton were struggling with hay fever. He was

struggling with the car. He said he felt the least comfortable he has

ever felt in the car. Not good ahead of this Grand Prix. The fans to our

left are packing the stands. They have all got their flags at. Jenson

Button went to wave to them. But he, too, was not happy. The car is not

competitive this weekend. It is one second down from where they want to

be. Painful times for our two leading Brits.

Just a quick one on conditions? No sign of the sun at the moment. It

is pretty chilly. Here I am standing to Jenny in her shirtsleeves. At the

wind is much stronger than yesterday. -- but the wind. It will

be tricky for the drivers because they are protected on the approach

to cops. Then they suddenly come out of a grandstand into the open and

the wind hits them. You can see a few loose rear ends through there.

Let's pop up to the commentary box. The guys there are talking about

Jenson and Lewis not feeling well. But Paul di Resta has been a star

this weekend. He has. All of the team will be over here to support.

It is a big race. When you can do that, you get the team behind you. I

think he is up for the fight. He did not get the qualification in the

last two races that he would like. And the Toro Rosso 's yesterday were

doing well. The news that Mark Webber is leaving

Red Bull and a plum seat has become available, you can bet they will be

putting everything on the line because of that is akin to

outqualified each other and get the cars in the top ten.

McLaren were saying the track is not as bumpy as previously.

They have tried to get rid of the bumps into the corners. We're just

getting a bit of information from our teens. It makes a big

difference. You can generate more downforce. That has been one of the

car 's problems. The bumpy ride has not been good over the last few

races. It is all about to kick off. I will

hand over to you guys. This is the final practice session before

yesterday morning when it was so quiet. Nico Hulkenberg its first out

scene to put a car back together and practice area.

The pit lane and exit is very small. There's no real reason for it. I

don't understand why it's been so limited in size. It is tricky. You

can go around the side of the car if you want to. It is a bit tricky.

way goes grew John. A reminder -- Sebastian Vettel was third fastest

yesterday. Paul di Resta was top Brit ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who

was fifth. The two Toro Rosso guys were sixth and seventh. Adrian Sutil

was eighth. Jenson Button was disgruntled down in 11th. McLaren

were not as fast as they would like. Raikkonen was 13th. Further down,

Gutierrez, among others. Max Chilton and Felipe Massa did not set a

representative time. What they were doing there is

putting the scales under the wheels. The weight distribution in these

cars is important. You can move it a bit. The 1% makes a difference. You

want to make sure you are as close to it as possible. The tyres are

cold. They will be to the running pressures on the track. They will

check the weight distribution. Then they took off the tyres and put on

the heated ones in the blankets. The two tyres we are using, the

Orange sidewall tire is a hard Pirelli tyre. Then we have got the

medium as well, the Whitewater medium tyre. As you can see, it is a

hard tire. No times have been set yet. We are on board with Raikkonen.

Let's see how it is handling as he goes through the sequences of fast

corners. This is a famous section. It is all about change of direction

here. The wind is blowing up the back of

the car. That is the thing that upsets the car. You can lose rear

downforce. Through that Becketts complex will be tricky for the guys.

It just means opening the line a little bit. Some of the corners you

want to take earlier, some later. You were looking at the bodywork on

the two Lotus cars yesterday. They were experimenting with what they

call the device. It is a secondary system to reduce drag. What are they

running today? It is still on there today. I'm not sure they can use it

today. That is what takes the airflow up to the rear wing. It

stores the rear wing. -- stalls. I'm not sure they will raise it here.

But they had it on the car. If you run something on Saturday

morning, you tend to run it in qualifying. But they don't have to.

The car goes into parc ferme. Then you are not allowed to change the

Big vibration already. Obviously he has just gone out, Lewis Hamilton.

So that is a concern. That is slightly unusual. There for drivers

out there on a medium tyre. Everybody out there apart from them

quite as quick as we saw yesterday afternoon yet. What are you seeing

at Red Bull? It is interesting to see how much

work the teams are still having to do. Gary was observing how Red Bull

were playing around with the exhaust. They were trying to see how

it would be affected. Looking at the pictures, they have heard all sorts

of cameras taking pictures of this. There is still so much work to do

with, what, only another 50 minutes until qualifying.

Red Bull, we always know how hard they work. People can sometimes

think they did -- design the fastest cars and that is that. But they are

always trying to improve. These cars will have been worked on

last night. They are trying to make sense of some questions.

Joining us now from the Ferrari pit wall is the principal. Lovely to

have you with us. Good morning to all of you. A bit of blue sky for

you today. Not enough! But we can improve.

Felipe Massa had the accident yesterday. Tell us the extent of

damage done to the car and how late they were like -- working last night

to get it ready. The suspension was not too bad in

terms of damages. But it was unfortunate because they could not

finish. We need to prepare for today. It is not easy but the

conditions will be different. I am here with Gary Anderson. He is

always impressed by the way you always run these back-to-back tests

on the Friday with both Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. Similarly that

has cost you in terms of your preparation? -- presumably.

It will not be so relevant, unfortunately.

The front wing you were running yesterday with Fernando, are you

going to be running that this weekend? I think that we need to

have some more management of that. Are you going to do the mileage this

morning? I think we need to concentrate on this performance.

Finally, this has been a great track over the years. You're one of the

few teams based in the UK, but you seem to have an amazing relationship

with Silverstone. What are your chances this weekend? The atmosphere

is always great. I have been told that so many people love us in this

country. It is amazing. We have had good experiences in the past. We

have quick cars, teams qualifying. We will try to do our best.

Thank you very much. We hope the day goes well. Ferrari, 16 wins in the

British Grand Prix over the years. That is the most, taking into

account the different tracks. Here at Silverstone, interestingly,

Ferrari and McLaren are tied on wins with 12 apiece. The red cars have

had such a great run. The enthusiasm from the crowds here is always

tremendous. It always has been. There were 80,000 people here

yesterday, which is remarkable considering the weather was not

fantastic. But it is testament to the enthusiasm there is for Formula

One in this country. Fantastic to see that support for Silverstone,

fantastic. Just watching Fernando Alonso. TEAM RADIO: Nico Rosberg has

taken 50. That is interesting, but is interesting? They would usually

apply the left foot brakes. Sixth place -- six would be the normal

gear and that corner is not quick enough so you need to go to another

gear to get that acceleration of the corner so that steadies the car, if

you have the engine driving. You can stabilise by putting the power back

on. Just watching Fernando Alonso, trying to get those tyres up to

temperature. That is one of the biggest problems, the fact that that

does not heed the tyres up quickly enough for a one lap and that pays

dividends later in the race. It is like chicane and egg, you must

decide which one you want to have first. Fernando Alonso has had two

wins this year but he has had if you third places on the grid but

qualifying has not been the strong point. They have been to recover and

get those wins but the problem is that Red Bull are qualifying well

and they seem to be getting on top of looking after those tyres?

with my analysis, I look at speed and pure speed over the weekend and

during the race relative to that. Let us follow this. I love this

camera. On Valtteri Bottas. He comes through Becketts. The just how late

he can brake here. -- look just. We are into that really slow stuff,

more about mechanical grip rather than downforce on the lesson as you

start exonerating, that downforce has an effect? Yes but even through

those slowest corners, but around 120 kilometres an hour, they still

have 300 kilograms of downforce so it is really important. You can have

that small change in the front wing but sometimes the driver will come

back and that made more difference on slow speed rather than

high-speed. Coming back to Red Bull, they seem to be getting a head

around those tyres, that is the danger territory for everybody else?

They have speed and qualifying and they also seem to be maintaining

pace in the race at? The fastest lap time done by any over the weekend.

Red Bull are just behind Mercedes but Mercedes are not the fastest car

but Red Bull, performance of the race, they are not better in the

race or worse, they are just doing a very good job. Tom, you are at Red

Bull? I am joined by Mark Webber boss, Alan. How emotional -- his

father. How emotional is his retirement? He is the only one that

really matters, if he is happy, we will not worry too much and we are

very pleased for him. Were you expecting him to call it a day or

two go longer? He has been having a pretty good talk with his mother and

father and we were aware about what he was up to for quite a while.

Final thoughts ongoing back to Le Mans, does that make you nervous?

thought about that a bit because experience was not great there but

the car are different and they have improved and they have got better

aerodynamics. It will be OK. Final thought, has he had a rough deal at

Red Bull? No, they have looked after him. He has enjoyed working with

Adrian and he gets on particularly well with the manager. And he will

have an ongoing relationship with Red Bull, which will be lovely.

Drama on the track, we have a tyre failure on Sergio Perez 's are.

We're not sure why that red flag aside, unless there is debris. That

might be the answer. You can see some very big chunks of rubber?

shall have to see how that happened. Big chunks, there. He says that the

tar exploded. This is worrying. We have seen the lamination this year

and failure from Felipe Massa, but this is something different? We will

have to wait and see if we can get a replay. He has done six laps.

Basically, there was no reason for that to happen. He has to come back

to the pits. The driver does not know, maybe it was a puncture that

lead to overheating. The outer sidewall is completely gone. That is

a strange one. Normally, a tyre structure will stay together and the

trade will come off. It might have been a puncture that overheats the

shoulder of the tire. The marshals have been quick onto the scene. They

had to do that to all the debris out of the way. A huge amount of debris.

Not a particularly nice place for something like that to happen. He

did not go off, big-time, because it is no damage to the tire but that

was a worrying moment for everybody. Coming up towards Maggots and

Becketts. Mexican flags in the crowd. Support for Sergio Perez. He

has done a very good job to get that car back. Just going nice and

slowly. Jenny, what do you see? rear left has been completely

shredded. Pieces of rubber flapping around. It is absolutely destroyed.

It could well have taken out the suspension as well. As we saw last

week with Lewis Hamilton. The guys will start working on this. The

sporting director will have a very good look and work out what is going

on. And the second in charge at Pirelli has come out. He is just

looking in, trying to work out what has happened. But a very wordy and

failure. Whether it is a puncture or not, we shall try to find out. --

very worrying failure. We can get the replay. No, we did not see the

beginning of that. That replay was turning in. The left rear tyre

looked OK at that point in time but that is where it could have failed.

Just that shot from behind. We can see those bits of rubber but it had

already disintegrated at that point. The new bonding process on the

Pirelli tyres to stop those problems we had before but this does look

like something different and maybe he had picked up some debris

somewhere else. Difficult to know? It is. The bonding process between

the rubber compound and the top of the steelwork so it is one of those

things when the surface of the tire comes off, it leaves the structure

of the tire but overheating the shoulders means that the

construction of the tie will brake up and coming out of cops, there is

a curve and there is that serrated curve, it is possible to get your

tyres cut from that. We shall have to wait and see if we can get more

information. It is possible. That is a matter of concern for McLaren. We

are being told this will restart in just over one minute. As the clock

continues to tick away. A lot of people will be checking their tyres

even more closely to make sure there is nothing to worry about in the

various other teams. So, the track is clear, the marshals have done

their job. Thank you for getting in touch with us. Adam says, I still

expect Webber to get pole position. He loves this track. I think that is

possible, certainly read all are looking quick. And he does love this

track. He lives not far away near Buckingham. It is very much a second

home to him. Another says, who do you think will be the best Brit this

weekend? Allen said Paul, then said Lewis Hamilton, James Allen

yesterday... TEAM RADIO: in terms of temperature, it is not different,

quite similar. The wind is also affecting it. It has a big effect.

That is interesting, the wind is having quite a big effect. Alan said

that it will be Paul di Resta, this is the chequered flag. This was at

the chequered flag, who would you go for? For the race? I would say Paul

di Resta could do that. I have a feeling those tyres look very

consistent here and Force India can take advantage. I think it might be

Jenson Button, I would love to say! But I don't think it will be. The

McLaren is not performing and they are lacking downforce. They know

they have plenty of work to do. Dan O'Connor, another question, do the

wheels have Allen 's car is do they have balanced line-up marks like

aircraft? Balanced weights, the wheel is a construction but it has

the tire valve and the tire pressure and temperature sensors so that

throws the balance out just a little bit and we are seeing that rear

floor damage. When that tire broke up, it wipes out part of the floor.

The rims have that tire pressure sensor so that throws the balance

out. The tyres are balanced before being put on, at Pirelli. When the

accommodation goes together, it is only I'd just a little bit and they

have then been rebalanced. similar to road car is but slightly

more sophisticated. What does it mean in the race when they give the

driver more from wing? Were so involved, it is such an expression

that we can use all the time but what does that mean? -- front wing.

They have downforce distributed at the front and rear and if you do not

have enough aerodynamic balance, it will under steer. The car will not

turn as quickly as the driver wants so by putting on more front wing, it

applies more angle to the flaps at the front wing to give him more

downforce and more grip. Straightforward as that. Hope that

answers your question. More front wing, more grip. Mark Webber on the

track, down Wellington straight. Work still going on at McLaren as

they set about changing the floor. This is a huge component Alonso

vital? It creates 30% of the overall downforce. There is a chance that

that area is critical and it will lose some downforce but maybe there

is other damage, I don't know. But if I was there, I would have said,

we have this deficit, let's run with it because are only 37 minutes to

go, let's get more laps and think about the entire race. Forget about

overall performance and think about durability and you might learn more

from this morning and having the car parked in the garage. They have to

worry about the limited time. Two hours between the end of this

session and the start of qualifying. Still, they need to think about

that. Looking down at Mark Webber, making his way around one of his

favourite tracks but the fastest time at the moment, has just been

taken by Mark Webber, no surprises. He is faster than Valtteri Bottas.

Perez was faster before that incident. And there goes the remains

of the tire, that technician from Pirelli, that'll be analysed

somewhere secret! We might see a better replay but after that last

question the front wing, to quantify aerodynamics, these fast corners are

about 250 kilometres an hour and these cars generate about 1300 kg of

downforce at that speed and 40% and that is on the front of the car,

which is 520 kilograms of front downforce but when we see someone

adjusting that front wing, he will be adding about five kilograms of

load onto that front wing so it is a very small number and the driver can

pick up such small numbers and the balance is so critical, those

numbers are tiny. Five kilograms of front downforce can turn the car

from under steer into good balance. Incredible. Bernie Ecclestone making

his way through the paddock. Let's get back to the pits and the McLaren

Joel thing -- McLaren managing director. What is the damage?

extensive to the rear of the car and he does not recall hitting any kerb

or anything so all we know is we had an instantaneous deflation, no

warning, no sense of problems. We are focused on repairing the car and

getting back out. To be fair to Pirelli, we need more time to do

those forensics and collect the rest of the tire from the circuit and

pasted together. As soon as we know, we will let you know. Just

unexpected. What damage was sustained? It looks fairly badly

damaged, the rear floor diffuser. The boys have got a bit of work to

do. Can McLaren turn it around to get out for qualifying? I hope so.

There is no evidence of any damage to the gearbox at the moment.

luck with the challenge. TOM CLARKSON: Something at that -- like

that put a lot of load through. Hopefully if he is going slow

enough, it will not do too much damage.

Looking at him driving back there, you wonder how he can. The hydraulic

differential pushes plates together, and you can adjust the

pressure on the plates to make it lock more or not less. They have a

Button on the steering wheel. You can just press the Button and it

makes a differential. I don't see any problem with the gearbox. It

should be OK. Sebastian Vettel comes through

Copse. Daniel Ricciardo, some people think he is going to be his

replacement. Lewis Hamilton is sitting out of the car but with

crash helmet on. He is ready to get back out. They are making some major

changes, or he would be back in the car. He was not happy with the

balance of it yesterday. I wonder if they are making it changes. Di Resta

is currently third. It is still early stages. Erez is still fifth

Hulkenberg. Hamilton has only done a bit and is in 18th. Here we are

watching Daniel Ricciardo. He is on another good lap at the moment. He

is coming down Hangar Straight. He caught him pretty quickly, which

would have been a wake-up call. But he dealt with it quickly. He had a

good early sector. Let's see if this is going to be an improvement for

him. He stays second, but it is a slightly better luck. Jean-Eric

Vergne is also on track, and not surprisingly, we are keeping a close

eye on these two at the moment. We know they are both under

consideration. It is interesting. Up until this race, all of the doors

were shut. Whenever Mark Webber decided to go on the sports cars,

that opened a door. It is going to be interesting to see who is going

to pick the ball up, who is going to give something. Jean-Eric Vergne has

just gone second furthest -- fastest. They are all potentially

drivers for Red Bull. It is going to be interesting to see who can pick

it up. Let's look at a long low here. What has he been up to? --

Fernando Alonso. He needs a bit more front wing. A few more kilos on the

front end! Lewis Hamilton is complaining about the opposite.

Maybe the wind is having an effect here. It is going to make life more

difficult. A couple more questions. Alex says, should the teams be

worried about the tyres when they delaminate? I think we have to wait

and see. My biggest worry about the problems we have had with the tyres

is that it is not consistent enough to be, in my book, a manufacturing

problem. It is more like a quality control problem. It is a bit random.

Again, if this, for any reason, was the same problem, again, there have

been races before with this problem, but suddenly it pops up

with one tyre. If I was running a team, I would be trying to work some

way of getting my own analysis done on the tyres. In the Mercedes pit,

still not a lot of action. Rosberg is in his car ready to go. He has

had three pole positions this year. The battle in qualifying between

himself and Lewis Hamilton has been pretty intense. Hamilton still has

the edge. We have had seven events so far, and Hamilton is up 4-3. But

it is Rosberg who has had the most pole positions. Hamilton has had

just one. It is a great, great rivalry that we are witnessing. We

are just watching Daniel Ricciardo again. He is now back down into

third place. Fourth, rather. Di Resta has gone third. Another good

luck by Paul di Resta. -- another good lap. Now, picking up the

throttle. Quite an early gear change just to keel. I was going to say

that it is an interesting tussle between them. Both Daniel Ricardo

and Jean-Eric Vergne come up through Formula three. They note the circuit

pretty well. -- they know. This track can be used in many layouts.

It will give them both the added confidence. They both now have a lot

of F1 milage. Ricciardo has been doing it a bit longer. The time is

right to make a choice between them. If I was choosing, up until about

two races ago, if I was choosing one of them, it would have to be a flick

of a coin but it would go towards Ricciardo. In the last couple of

races, it looks like Jean-Eric Vergne has come on. He seems to have

been going forward. But the qualifying in the last couple of

races has been affected by rain a bit, and then we have had Monaco,

which is always exceptional. Can you read the races in the same way as

the others? If there is a potential of picking something up and running

with it, it is the driver that picks it up that you want. They are close

enough to say that the pure speed will come. But, like Bottas in

Montreal, rain came and he qualified in third.

Person-macro has had a disappointing run recently. At the start of the

season he was consistent. He is still an enigma. We are still

waiting to see the consistent run of performances by dealing with

everything that has been thrown at him. There's no denying he has pace

on his day. At the moment, he is 11th fastest. He has set a personal

best in the first sector. That is about half a second off the best we

have seen in that first sector. I wonder what the second sector is

going to look like. 38.2 he has done here. The best was Mark Webber.

If you look at the back of the Lotus, there is no periscope. You

have got this horseshoe wing. They have got a very low bodywork on the

cards. -- on the cars. It is too different specifications for the

cars. We were talking about Lotus. Tom,

you are down at the pit garage. We have got a really graphic

illustration of how the DIS works today. On Kimi Raikkonen 's car, if

you look at the airbox, either side, there are some deals. On this car,

the deals are open today. -- deals. On Rome and grow John 's car, you

can see that they are closed. That signifies that he is running

different bodywork on his car. He is not going to be using the double

system. Lovely to have that comparison

directly there. Very clear that one is running with and one without. As

a technical director, Gary, what is the thinking there?

You are trying to pack as much as you can into a given weekend. If you

get the running and the session times in you had as much information

up -- if you get the running and the session times in, you have as much

information as you can. You are not any loud -- allowed any testing. You

have to get as much out of it as you can. Unless you are Mercedes!

just let that in there. No damage done there. Interesting

that a lot of new rules have been announced for next year. In season

testing has become a part of Formula One again. You wonder whether all of

the controversy about the Mercedes test and Pirelli complaining they

were not allowed to run their tyres anywhere, at least it seems to have

led to a bit more logic in terms of testing for next year.

It is ideal for these teams. They are trying to make things work.

Those parts, which cost a lot of money, are ending up in the bin. If

you can plan your development, the cars can step forward. That is the

important thing. For the moment we are focused on

what is happening here at Silverstone. Hamilton has gone

quickest while we have been chatting. He is only a fraction

faster than Webber. None the less, it is faster. That is going to boost

his confidence. A big slider therefrom matter. -- a big slide

It changes so much. Felipe Massa is on the medium tyre. I am not sure

what he is up to. His spirits are OK but he does not look like being

fastest of all. -- his splits. Might have expected something bigger than

that. Sometimes the Ferrari does struggle to get temperature. It

depends on the balance of the car. If you have a car that wants some

traction, a medium tyre will help. With under steer, it will make it

understeer more. Let's watch this from this camera.

He goes through Abbey. Let's look at the oversteer from Felipe Massa.

That was a big armful in a Formula One car.

He made a mistake on the way in. It was not a balance problem, it was a

Felipe Massa problem inflicted by the wind. When he had his crash

yesterday, he was on a prototype Pirelli tyre. He said afterwards

that it was a hard tyre and basically he had not got enough

temperature into it. It caught him out. The prototype is not being used

today and will not be used for the rest of the weekend.

An extra set of tyres could be taken and voted off. -- taken and voted

He is still on the hard compound tyre. He is only relatively new set

of compound tyre. -- on a relatively new set. He is down on Webber in the

middle sector. But this final sector, let's just see. The Mercedes

is usually pretty good in the tight stuff will stop across the line, and

no, not quicker than Hamilton, but on a par with him. Hamilton and

Rosberg, 124 -- both for Mercedes. This is something that we will see,

watching Fernando Alonso here, the fact here is that you get lap times

that are separated by thousands of a second. At any point, between

Hamilton and Rosberg, who could have been three tenths of a second but

when you add that up, one man is better in one section and one is

better in another. What we see with these tyres, the harder tyres, it

does not seem to have any degradation. Looking at those long

runs yesterday, they looked very stable and those medium tyres, maybe

a fraction but nothing much. I at this race as a potential 1-stop for

teams like Force India and two stops for the man who will win this race.

That is a great camera position. Inside the front wheel. You can see

that carbon fibre shield. Stopping the airflow. Trying to make that

smoother on the inside. And on the top, that is eating up the error

coming from the front wing and trying to redirect it just to make

it more acceptable to the side pockets. Maldonado. At big slide.

And he ends up running out of road. That was a lovely shot, for a while!

He just needs more steering lock! Not quite enough! Dramatic stuff

from Pastor Maldonado. As Williams enjoyed their 600th Grand Prix

celebrations. They have the combination. Paul di Resta making

that same error. Whether it is to do with the wind direction by the does

seem to reflect quite a few people. I would pitted down to wind. More

steering lock and the wider track and less speed. That is the easiest

thing to come by. More questions. If they car has a puncture, have the

team effectively lost one complete set of tyres? Know, if you have a

puncture, and it is recognised as a puncture, the FIA will allow you to

replace that one tire with something from the Friday practice session of

the same age. So you can replace it, yes. Hamilton has just set the

fastest middle sector time of anybody. He is on those harder

compound tyres. He has gone for another quick lap. While Webber has

gone quicker but this could be faster and again. Very even between

Red Bull and Mercedes. Hamilton takes three tenths out of the Red

Bull. That was a good lap from Lewis Hamilton and it shows that Mercedes

could be in the battle for pole position. And still on those harder

tyres. It is staying very stable. To go back to that puncture, the battle

drives through the gravel trap and gets a puncture, no, they will not

replace the tire but if it is genuinely due to debris on the

track, yes. Rosberg going into that second place. What is Sebastian

Vettel doing? Not a huge amount at the moment. He has done 14 laps

presumably he is concentrating on race running. His times have not

been that quick. He has sorted it out without any major consequences.

Ferrari are about half of the second of, perhaps more, on the ultimate

pace. Another question. As an engineer, do you feel that the teams

prefer the new circuit layout at Silverstone or the older one?

don't think there is any real difference. Then you start finish

line is quite demanding so it is pretty good. -- the new start -

finish line. The old pets at Silverstone, this new place is

fantastic but it is not Silverstone. The character has -- the character

of this place has changed with this new wing but it will be gradually

built up as more investment comes and once that comes, it will perhaps

make more of the centre of this whole new facility and it will

become the hub of the circuit. We could see Hulkenberg making a

similar error, so it is really affecting a lot of people. Final

question... How much shaking and vibration does go on in the car? How

smooth is the right? If you compare that to most people on road cars,

perhaps a stiff sports car, but they vibration in Formula one is

different? Yes, it is a strange thing because when you talk about

high-performance sports cars on the road, they have low profile tyres

and that is where you get most of the vibration and feedback. These

are high-profile so they absorb a lot that impact. They take the

high-speed vibration out of that but in retrospect, that affects the car.

What the driver feels is the steering wheel, if the whalers out

of balance, it will vibrate. And he can feel every little tremble,

everything that is running. If it is running smoothly, that is when those

big vibrations start. If you are leading with five laps, every little

change. But you will feel circuit vibrations but nothing really from

the car itself. Kimi Raikkonen on the circuit. He has just done a

Ursula Best in the first sector. Jenny, what are the chances of

Sergio Perez getting back out? Pretty good, helmet is on, and he is

in the car. The team have done an amazing job, they have replaced the

floor, the rear bodywork and the rear wing. They have got it's that

they have welded onto the car. It is a really good turnaround from

McLaren and they will hope to get him out for the last few minutes.

Back on board with Kimi Raikkonen. Pretty good lap, this, but not quite

on the pace of Mercedes. It will be up there with Red Bull and Ferrari.

He is on the medium compound tyres and they set their times on the

harder tyre. Only six days. That is disappointing, bearing in mind he is

on the softer rivers compound tyres? -- softer of those compound tyres.

They are the hardest of the Pirelli tyres so that makes it just that

little bit more difficult. Yes, certainly Lotus are looking at those

tyre choices from Pirelli. Which compound. They will be for the

softer tyres to come along and Hungary they feel aggrieved because

Pirelli have chosen to go for the harder compound than they were

hoping for. But they were very quick in Hungary last year so that might

have an effect. Currently, Hamilton is fastest. Ahead of his team-mate,

Rosberg. We expect to see some more out others medium tyres in a few

moments. -- on those medium tyres. Barton is in 13th place. -- autumn.

-- Jenson Button. The team director for McLaren keeping an eye on

things. He has been doing work on the similar. Hopefully that will

help McLaren move further. Charles Pic is the fastest of the younger

teams. Driving for Caterham. Sebastian Vettel, done in 20th

place, he has not been looking at the lap times at all. Chilton is

21st. This will change quite a lot in the remaining 11 minutes of the

session? This is the time to take the view will dine. They will not go

to low fuel and they will go down to about 20 or 30 kilograms, put on

those medium tyres and go for one lap to similar qualifying just to

understand the car and how those tyres work in those conditions.

Early important for qualifying. is why you talk about fuel in

kilograms not litres? Litres and gallons, if you have a quantity of

fuel, temperature makes a few will get bigger and smaller so if you

have fuel at 10 degrees, and you think you have 50 litres, at 25

degrees you will think it is 51. It is not as accurate. Stays the same.

The difference is, one litre of fuel is about not with 75 kilograms. It

is the best reference. -- three quarters of a kilogram. Like Jenson

Button, Felipe Massa has never been on the podium and he has never led

any lap at Silverstone. Slightly odd statistics that Silverstone throws

up some of these top drivers. Fernando Alonso has done well in the

past. He had a couple of wins and Mark Webber also. But the all-time

record setter, Jim Clark and Alain Prost, five wins each in the British

Grand Prix. Jim Clark had an amazing run in the 60s when he won them

back-to-back. Incredible. It was as tough to win races back then as it

is now. It was just as tough. challenge was just as much. We can

see Perez coming out. All those harder tyres. He has not gone for

the medium compound. Let us see if we can get a chance to watch this.

That seems to work pretty well and when it comes to this art itself,

they will be on a level piece of tarmac running towards the first

corner. It is a very fast first corner, you really get a chance to

carry some speed in to turn on one. Doing these practice tracks, it's

not just about the good start, it is about making sure you go through the

procedures correctly and the engineers have got everything

working. It is more about making sure the system works than the

actual times. 8.5 minutes left. Let's get down to the pets with

Tom... You have to feel sorry for Felipe Massa 's mechanics because

last night was a late-night changing the front end and they are now

working on the rear end, changing the engine of this Ferrari.

According to the team, it is precautionary. They would not

elaborate. It is busy and he will not be out before the end of the

session. Jenny? The Mercedes garage have been doing quite a lot to the

front end. There are some inlets on the front side, there. Hooked up

with some carbon fibre and on the other side, not hooked up. That is

an interesting difference. And they have also been working on the front

suspension, changing some settings. Lewis Hamilton is not happy. They

connect up to the leading edge of the floor, the low pressure is

sucking the air through, like a vacuum cleaner. And that little

strip of titanium across the bottom makes it legal. You cannot have any

surface without a vertical surface. That makes everything legal. It will

not change performance, but it would be illegal if you try to run the car

with that and if you have gone over a kerb and it is broken, so be it.

Hamilton is fastest. Into the final stages of morning practice at

Silverstone in the build-up to the qualifying. I wonder whether Lewis

Hamilton will be able to challenge for pole position? Mercedes have

done this on plenty of occasions this year. Only Red Bull and

Mercedes have taken pole position this year, no other team has had a

look in. Ferrari have not been as fast, war Lotus. It looks like

another Mercedes versus Red Bull battle for pole position and we have

to go back to the thousand and seven four Lewis Hamilton 's first race at

Silverstone in a Formula one and that was it last time a British

driver had pole position here. He had a brilliant win in the wet the

following season. But his only pole position here was his very first

year in 2007. Which cars are on medium tyres? Most of them?

Everybody, really. Nico Rosberg is still in the pits. Adrian Sutil,

still on those harder tyres. Five minutes to go. This is shootout

time. Maldonado, 33.4. Maybe the next lap will be quicker. That is

his best lap so far. We are not on board with Hulkenberg. He did 34.5.

That was earlier on the harder tyres. We will just keep an eye and

see what he does on this lap. I am sure this will be quite flat-out.

Will anybody improve massively? Daniel Ricciardo is on a slightly

outer lap and he did earlier on. Paul di Resta, he could be looking

at a slight improvement. Valtteri Bottas crosses the line, that is a

slight improvement. Sebastian Vettel suddenly beginning to go quickly.

Fernando Alonso... He is on medium tyres. Relatively quick middle

sector. Certainly not the quickest. That will have cost a 10th or so, I

would have thought. That lap was a fraction slower than he achieved on

the hard tyres earlier. They have this working range area.

Before it was the supersoft and medium that would work on high

temperatures. They change the supersoft, but the medium still once

to work on a high temperature. -- still wants to work. Perez has been.

-- has been off. I think this is in the Becketts area. He is having a

troubled time. He was only quick lap. -- on a quick lap.

He went out on a hard tyre and made a mistake. We have not seen it yet

but we will get a replay. Here we It is that Becketts section. It is

what we have seen a lot. He ran out of road completely. He did not make

any contact with the barrier, thankfully.

Once you turn to the right for the last part of the corner, it makes a

big difference. Because he had his spin, several had to back off,

including Webber, who was fastest in the first sector out of everybody,

and Vettel, who had been very quick in the first sector. Webber I think

potentially had a better lap there. He had to back off because of Perez

going off. Grosjean is also on a lap. He is currently 17th. Here we

are, riding with the Frenchman. He has got to prove himself in the

remaining part of this year. That has got to be his target. He does

improve his time. That is on the softer of the two compoundss of

tyre. They have got this hydraulic

suspension system. It allows the car to be more compliant. It moves the

front load of the car to the rear. It gets a drag reduction, and making

the car low at the rear is better for that.

Rosberg gained about half a second there from the time he did early on

the medium compound tyre. That is about right. Hamilton is

going to be the interesting one. They are the front running, quick

cars. We are just finishing the lap here

with Ricciardo. Let's see how this changes. 32.5, so he is a 10th

slower on the tyres than he was. Lewis has backed off, mid-sector.

Let's have a look at what has happened. He was quick in the first

sector. Then something happened. Oh, now, that is a strange one. What

a strange oversteer, mid-corner. He didn't seem to be doing anything

odd. Well, very mysterious. He backed off on that lap. I wonder

whether he is going to be able to get another lap. His team-mate now.

As you can see, he's a couple of tenthss up on the time Hamilton set

earlier. It is a long lap. 3.6 miles, the second longest in Formula

One. But it is a high-speed one. Rosberg has been underrated for a

long while. He is up there with the top guys in this Championship at the

moment. No doubt about that. His performances this year have been

outstanding. Perez, by the way, is back in the McLaren pit and is not

going to be taking any further part in this session. It is a difficult

way for him to go into qualifying. Let's watch the end of the lap. Just

a little correction therefrom Rosberg. Could be a good lap. He

goes fastest. 1: 31.48. I think that is about what the time

and advantage will be. Hamilton is doing his second flying

lap on the medium tyre. Again, they are very evenly matched. Not much to

choose between them. Vettel, on his lap. This is in the ballpark. Not

quite there, though. Six tenths down on the Mercedes. Mercedes had got

the edge and we could be on for another duel between Lewis Hamilton

and his team-mate for opposition. But let's see. Red Bull might be

running more fuel at this stage. We have seen that at several points

this year. There is Sergio Perez. It has been a difficult session for

him. He has completed just nine laps in this session compared to the

18-20 laps, maybe even 22, of some of his rivals. Bottas 25 laps. I

think that it is the most of anybody. Mercedes, you would think

they would be looking happier than that. They are all a bit glum at the

moment. I don't think Lewis is happy. He

just missed the apex. That is the area he is struggling in. He is not,

the ball with the breaking of the cars. Every corner is a problem. --

he is not comfortable. They have got a couple of hours to make the final

changes to the cars. The changes are applying to the race as well as

qualifying. Once the car appears for qualifying, then how it is set-up is

basically how it has to be set up for the race.

It looks like they have kept the spear. -- the speed. I assume the

cars are still quick. Yesterday, the times were not bad.

Ross Brawn made the point yesterday that in Malaysia, they had a quick

car and they never got to the point where the tyres, as he put it,

reached the cliff and were able to sustain good performance. They were

battling for the podium, Hamilton and Rosberg. If they reach that

level, they are not going beyond the practical effect of the tyres and

they have got it good chance in the race. Let's run through the

positions. It is Mercedes in one and concern. He is still off the pace

set by McLaren -- Rosberg in the Mercedes. Massa is done in 15th.

Can we read anything into the fact that Vettel took so long to do a

fast lap? Is it supreme confidence? The races where you get the points

tomorrow. That is the important thing on Sunday. After today, you

know the car will go quicker with less fuel. He knows the track. It is

about knowing the balance of the car for the risk tomorrow.

Quickly, this wind seems to be picking up. That is going to make a

difference, isn't it coming qualifying?

Through Becketts, there are four corners and they all different

directions. It is important to go in with a controlled speed. Many people

are going off will stop you have to be very careful with your speed