Fernando Alonso completed his final flying lap at just the right moment to capture top spot on the timesheets in the third and final free practice session ahead of qualifying for the British Grand Prix at
Silverstone.
The Spaniard thus ran out fastest in an hour-long session that started with the sort of heavy rain that could blight both qualifying and the race, but dried towards the end, providing a degree of interest as the order continued to change.
Alonso's best lap - a 1min 20.740secs effort - proved to be a couple of tenths quicker than second-placed
Mark Webber as
Renault power annexed the top couple of spots. Webber also improved right at the end, joining Alonso in vaulting past
Heikki Kovalainen, who had headed a
McLaren 1-2 for some time.
Kovalainen eventually wound up third fastest, albeit half a second shy of the double world champion, while Hamilton was pushed back to fifth as Toro Rosso's
Sebastian Vettel followed the top two in finding time as the flag fell. As a result, little can be read into the final order, as FP3 continued the trend of unusual orders established from the start of the season.
Hamilton - and Kovalainen's - expected rivals this weekend, featured in the middle of the pack, with world champion
Kimi Raikkonen ninth in the best of the Ferraris and team-mate
Felipe Massa twelfth as the Scuderia went its own way. That allowed
Nelson Piquet Jr, Sebastian Bourdais and
Timo Glock to line-up behind Hamilton, while
Rubens Barrichello rounded out the top ten ahead of
Honda team-mate
Jenson Button.
The conditions caught out
Williams'
Kazuki Nakajima, who spun at Vale, while
David Coulthard's final British Grand Prix weekend shuddered slightly as his
Red Bull managed just six laps before mechanical problems stranded him 20th and last.
With little at stake in the session, drivers will not fret too much over their respective positions but, with further intermittent - and potentially heavy - rain forecast throughout the afternoon, there will be no second chances as the grid is set.
