Australian GP - Free Practice 3

Nico Rosberg continued to impress in the third and final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, setting the pace with a best lap of 1:25.808s in the Williams Toyota.

Rosberg, who topped both of the Friday practice sessions, used the super-soft Bridgestone tyre for his hot lap and just managed to shade Toyota's Jarno Trulli by three-thousandths of a second.

Jenson Button led the way for the Brawn Mercedes team with the third fastest time, again underlining the performance advantage the 'diffuser three' are enjoying around the Albert Park circuit.

As ever with a practice session ahead of qualifying, it is difficult to know who is running on almost empty fuel tanks to simulate the first or second round of qualifying and who is running with race fuel to simulate the final round of qualifying.

Felipe Massa languished down the timesheets for much of the session before making late gains in his Ferrari. The Brazilian ended the session fourth fastest but it remains to be seen if that kind of performance can be replicated should he make it into the final round of qualifying.

Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen had a very short session as he was forced to pull off and retire the second F60 following a hydraulic failure. With just five laps completed, Raikkonen heads into qualifying somewhat blind.

Kazuki Nakajima continued to shine in the second Williams with the fifth fastest time ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the second BGP 001.
The Brazilian veteran was on a very hot lap late in the session before running wide and losing time.

Mark Webber again ran well for the Red Bull Renault team with the seventh fastest time ahead of Timo Glock in the second Toyota. BMW Sauber meanwhile have shown no speed all weekend but at least in this session Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld were able to scrape into the top ten.

Reflecting their pace from yesterday, Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton were 11th and 12th fastest for McLaren Mercedes ahead of Sebastian Vettel who had a wild ride across the gravel and grass at turn one before retiring the second RB5.

Adrian Sutil continued to lead the way at Force India with the 14th best time ahead of the Toro Rosso duo of Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastien Buemi.

With what is visibly the worst handling car on the circuit, Fernando Alonso continued his Melbourne struggle in 17th ahead of former team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella and current team-mate Nelson Piquet.

Next up is the all-important qualifying hour and as we have seen so far this weekend in Melbourne, nothing this year is predictable...

Free Practice 3 Result (Click to enlarge).