Home support boosts Vettel, Rosberg

Sebastian Vettel bounced back to his best on Friday afternoon when he led the way for Red Bull in the second free practice for this weekend’s German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. 

On a warm and dry afternoon in the Eifel, the defending triple world champion and current series leader clocked a best lap in 1min 30.416sec.That put him two-tenths of a second clear of nearest rival and fellow-German Nico Rosberg of Mercedes, as the pair made the most of home support to emerge as likely leading contenders for pole position on Saturday.

Australian Mark Webber was third quickest in the second Red Bull, close behind Rosberg but ahead of Frenchman Romain Grosjean and his Lotus teammate Finn Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion.After the dramatic tyre problems seen a week earlier at Silverstone, where four drivers suffered high-speed blowouts during the British Grand Prix, there were no problems with the new Kevlar-strapped tyres supplied by Pirelli.

Two-time champion Spaniard Fernando Alonsowas sixth quickest in the afternoon, ahead of Ferrari team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa, after failing to clock a lap in the morning. Briton Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 champion, was eighth fastest in the afternoon, after dominating morning practice, ahead of former teammate and compatriot 2009 champion Jenson Button of McLaren.Another Briton Paul Di Resta was 10th fastest ahead of his Force India team-mate German Adrian Sutil.

In a note that was sent to all the teams, the International Motoring Federation (FIA) race director Charlie Whiting said:‘For safety reasons, we have been asked by Pirelli to ensure that the tyres on all cars are run under the conditions listed below.‘It will be the responsibility of each team to satisfy the FIA technical delegate that the cars comply with the following requirements at all times.’