Prac Three: Rosberg impresses in final practice

Saturday 5th April 2008

Nico Rosberg took the honours in final practice for Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, ending Felipe Massa's bid for perfection.

The Brazilian, who won this race from pole to flag last season, comfortably topped the timesheets in his Ferrari at the end of both Friday's sessions.

But Massa, under pressure to perform after failing to score a point in the opening two races in Australia and Malaysia, had to settle for second in the closing 60-minute run before qualifying.

As for current Championship leader Lewis Hamilton, running in the spare chassis following his smash into a tyre wall during the previous day's running, the 23-year-old was in a miserable 18th place.

Hamilton was 1.138 seconds behind Rosberg, with the Williams star posting a lap of one minute 32.521secs for the 5.421km circuit.

That time, however, was over a second slower than Massa's best of yesterday, with the teams traditionally running differing fuel loads in the closing session.

Four different manufacturers covered the top-four places, with Red Bull's Mark Webber and Jarno Trulli in his Toyota taking third and fourth.

In a good morning for Red Bull, David Coulthard was fifth, with Kazuki Nakajima sixth in his Williams, followed by Robert Kubica and Nelson Piquet for BMW and Renault.

Reigning World Champion Kimi Raikkonen, who ran Massa a close second yesterday, was down in ninth place, just over 0.7secs down on Rosberg, with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen completing the top 10.

Jenson Button was 16th in his Honda, with Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson 21st and two seconds down, with team-mate Takuma Sato at the back of the pack.

Times
01 N. Rosberg Williams 1:32.521 17 laps
02 F. Massa Ferrari 1:32.726 10 laps
03 M. Webber Red Bull 1:32.742 16 laps
04 J. Trulli Toyota 1:32.901 18 laps
05 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:32.918 14 laps
06 K. Nakajima Williams 1:33.020 16 laps
07 R. Kubica BMW 1:33.024 18 laps
08 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:33.074 16 laps
09 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:33.237 10 laps
10 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:33.367 15 laps
11 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33.372 17 laps
12 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:33.392 20 laps
13 F. Alonso Renault 1:33.445 13 laps
14 R. Barrichello Honda 1:33.551 18 laps
15 T. Glock Toyota 1:33.595 20 laps
16 J. Button Honda 1:33.600 17 laps
17 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33.651 14 laps
18 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:33.659 14 laps
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:33.857 18 laps
20 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:34.074 16 laps
21 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:34.591 18 laps
22 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:34.952 16 laps

Post to del.icio.us

E-mail Article Print-Friendly Version