Prac Three: BMW shine as top two falter

Saturday 15th March 2008

In a surprising final practice session it was BMW's Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld who topped the timesheets while neither Ferrari nor McLaren finished in the top ten.

Report: With temperatures a good 10'C cooler than on Friday the drivers hit the track running for the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the curtain-raising Australian GP.

Within ten minutes 18 of the 22 drivers had completed their installation laps with only Felipe Massa, Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello and Lewis Hamilton yet to go out.

Sebastien Bourdais and Anthony Davidson were the first to post lap times with Toro Rosso taking the top spot with a 1:29.366. The Frenchman improves his time but is still overtaken by Robert Kubica with Nick Heidfeld slotting in behind. Giancarlo Fisichella goes fourth with Adrian Sutil P5.

Timo Glock's first flying lap ends in the grass as the Toyota driver pushes too hard and becomes the first of the morning to be undone by F1's new ban on traction control. Glock runs wide on his next lap, kicking up dirt onto the track.

Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel go P1 and two but look set to be overtaken by Kimi Raikkonen. The Ferrari driver however runs very wide in the final sector and only goes second behind Glock, who took the P1 slot moments before Raikkonen crossed the line.

Massa goes quickest with a 1:27.707 while Kazuki Nakajima puts his Williams up into third place. Fernando alonso is on a flying lap but the Spaniard is clearly fighting the steering of his R28.

Alonso, though, still goes P1 only to lose out to Raikkonen who in turn loses out to Rosberg. Alonso returns to the top a lap later while Mark Webber goes P7 ahead of Vettel.

Hamilton takes fourth place with his first flying lap, some 0.342s behind Alonso.

With half an hour left on the clock Nelson Piquet Jr finally hit the track for his first timed lap of the morning. He goes P13 behind Barrichello and Kubica only to put his car in the gravel moments later. He gets back onto the track and is told to pit by his Renault mechanics.

Vettel improves to fifth place in his Toro Rosso, slotting in behind Hamilton and ahead of Nakajima.

With twenty minutes to go the top four are all out on track vying for position as they try for the best set-up ahead of qualifying. Raikkonen takes to the top of the timesheets, outpacing Alonso by 0.004s.

Massa improved to fourth place with David Coulthard taking P5, 0.344s off the pace. Both drivers, though, are demoted a place when Trulli crosses the line with the fourth best time.

Vettel sets the fastest first sector time and takes P1 for Toro Rosso with a 1:26.663, half a second up on Raikkonen's best time. Webber goes second for Red Bull.

Fisichella posts the best middle sector time for Force India, improving to second place. Jenson Button goes fourth as the lap times continue to tumble as the drivers swap to the softer of the two Bridgestone compounds for the final ten minutes of the session.

Two fastest sector times put Rosberg P1 with a 1:26.171. Glock is up to fifth place ahead of Raikkonen.

With five minutes to go Hamilton comes out on the softer option tyres. The McLaren driver, though, appears to be struggling to control his car and is all over the place. He does however improve from P13 to P7.

Alonso also on the softer tyres is flying. He goes P1 with a 1:26.082. Barrichello is off the track and into the gravel having pushed too hard, losing control of his RA108.

Problems for Nakajima. The Japanese driver narrowly avoids the barriers as he also goes off the track pushing too hard and with no traction control to save him, he narrowly avoids a sidewards slap into the barriers.

Lap times are tumbling as all the drivers are on the softer tyres. Heidfeld goes P1 only to lose out to his team-mate Kubica by three tenths of a second.

Massa improves to 11th place making him the highest positioned Ferrari or McLaren driver. Hamilton is P12, Raikkonen P14 and Kovalainen P20.

Times
01 R. Kubica BMW 1:25.613 18 laps
02 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:25.950 16 laps
03 F. Alonso Renault 1:26.082 14 laps
04 N. Rosberg Williams 1:26.171 17 laps
05 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:26.385 14 laps
06 M. Webber Red Bull 1:26.407 17 laps
07 J. Button Honda 1:26.502 18 laps
08 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:26.663 18 laps
09 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:26.682 18 laps
10 J. Trulli Toyota 1:26.882 11 laps
11 F. Massa Ferrari 1:27.020 19 laps
12 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:27.084 14 laps
13 T. Glock Toyota 1:27.162 15 laps
14 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:27.163 17 laps
15 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:27.284 13 laps
16 R. Barrichello Honda 1:27.333 18 laps
17 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:27.489 18 laps
18 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:27.578 17 laps
19 K. Nakajima Williams 1:27.601 15 laps
20 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:27.992 15 laps
21 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:28.363 13 laps
22 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:28.912 15 laps

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