Nico Rosberg’s final practice session ahead of qualifying did start according to plan as he lost control of his FW31 on his way into the pits at the end of his installation lap and nosed the Williams Toyota lightly into the tyre barrier – almost an identical situation to Lewis Hamilton’s highly public off at the same circuit two years ago.However Rosberg’s car was soon returned to the Williams pit and following some minor attention, the German racer was back on track and at the very end of the one hour session, moved to the head of the timesheets with a best time of 1:36.133s.
Of course Rosberg has already topped plenty of practice sessions so far this year and the final session ahead of qualifying does not really represent what we expect to see in qualifying as some will opt to simulate qualifying sessions one and two with very little fuel on board, while others will focus on the final round of qualifying with race fuel added.
With Rosberg looking strong again for Williams, Jarno Trulli recorded the second fastest time in his Toyota. The Italian veteran was the first to switch from the harder prime tyre to the softer option tyre 40 minutes into the session and it was significant that he was able to lap consistently on the soft tyre at a time when others saw a big performance drop off.
Armed with a modified McLaren Mercedes featuring an ‘interim’ diffuser, Lewis Hamilton was third fastest but suffered a number of small incidents as he pushed the MP4-24 package to its limit and beyond. Hamilton’s McLaren was however probably fuelled very light to secure the third fastest time.
Jenson Button was fourth fastest in the leading Brawn Mercedes and lapping some eight-tenths off his best Friday time indicating he has plenty of fuel on board the BGP 001 with the Nelson Piquet a surprise fifth fastest just a thousandth of a second shy of Button in the leading Renault.
Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen both made the top ten with Ferrari with the sixth and ninth fastest times respectively with Heikki Kovalainen and Kazuki Nakajima splitting the duo. Rubens Barrichello rounded out the top ten in the second Brawn Mercedes but will undoubtedly be a factor in qualifying.
Nick Heidfeld led the BMW Sauber challenge with the 11th best time in his KERS-equipped F1.09 just a fraction ahead of team-mate Robert Kubica who has opted not to run the energy recovery system for the remainder of the weekend.
The Toro Rosso Ferrari duo of Sebastien Buemi and Sebastien Bourdais were next up ahead of both Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull Renault suffered identical driveshaft issues on both RB5 challengers and were forced to sit out the latter stages of the session. Webber in particular had looked very strong until that point.
Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella were 17th and 18th in the Mercedes-powered Force India while Fernando Alonso was just 19th after being forced to sit out much of the session. Renault has fitted his R29 with a new aero package overnight and stripped out KERS, but the double world champion was only able to complete six laps before mechanical problems intervened.
Timo Glock was amongst the early runners on track in the second Toyota but a gearbox problem saw the German racer pits after just six laps. It seem likely that the TF109 will require a new gearbox so not only does Glock face a five position grid penalty, he also heads into qualifying having missed the bulks of the final practice session.
Rosberg has proven his speed once again, but Button and Barrichello look very strong for a Brawn Mercedes pole...
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