It would be a difficult time for the AT&T Williams team in the final practice for the 2007 Australian Grand Prix. Alex would finish in tenth and Nico sixteenth. Nico would suffer a failure during the session that would see him stop out on the track very early in the session.
Australian GP Saturday
Practice
With the engine
rule now in place for the third and final practice session the teams would
have to contend with showers just prior to the start of the session. For the
Williams team Alex and Nico finished Friday practice in sixth and eighth.
The drivers are now running with the engine that they will use for the rest
of the weekend.
Albers would be first out in his Spyker. Alex and Nico would both come out
for their installation lap. They would both pit. With ten minutes of the
session run it would be still wet and no one had set a time. In the Williams
pit it was a hive of activity. With forty five minutes remaining we still
had not seen a timed lap. Albers would set the first time but was way of the
pace of Friday. Sutil was fastest with a 1m:31.177. Fisichella would easily
pass this time with a lap of 1m:28.866. The sun was now out and this would
see a rush of drivers coming out.
We had yet to see either of the Williams drivers as we came up onto the
thirty minute mark. The times would continue to fall. Fastest was now
1m:28.154 from Raikkonen. But Alonso would go half a second quicker,
1m:27.612. A 1m:26.616 from Raikkonen. This was the fastest lap we have seen
so far this weekend. Alex was now out for his timed laps. He would be joined
by Nico.
Coulthard would have an off at Turn one, but would continue. His first lap
would see him seventh, 1m:28.540. Nico would move into sixth with a
1m:28.363. Nico would stop out on the track. Off would come his steering
wheel and he was out of the car. His car had slowed suddenly with a failure
seeing Nico having to park his car. Alex was now in sixth with a 1m:27.942,
but this was 1.33 seconds behind the quickest time of Massa, 1m:26.608.
Nico had dropped to now be in eighth but one would expect him to drop
further down the order. Alex had returned to the pits. There was now just
fourteen minutes remaining. Nico would be seen running back into the pit
lane. Raikkonen was now fastest, 1m:26.106. Fisichella was now in second,
1m:26.454. Alex and Nico were now down in eleventh and twelfth. With five
minutes remaining Alex had yet to come back out. With just minutes left it
was looking like Alex would not come back out again.
But he would come back out for one flying lap in preparation for qualifying.
Alex would sea personal best time in sector one. The same for sector two. He
would finish with a time of 1m:27.322 to move into seventh. Nico was down in
fifteenth. The session would end with Alex dropping to tenth, some 1.2
seconds slower than Kimi. The finishing order was Raikkonen from Fisichella,
Hamilton, Davidson, Massa, Heidfeld, Alonso, Kovalainen, Sato, and Alex.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:26.064 14
2. Fisichella Renault (B) 1:26.454 18
3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:26.467 12
4. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:26.491 17
5. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:26.547 14
6. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:26.753 18
7. Alonso McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:26.786 10
8. Kovalainen Renault (B) 1:26.937 13
9. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:27.266 12
10. Wurz AT&T Williams-Toyota (B) 1:27.322 9
11. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:27.390 13
12. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:27.753 19
13. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) 1:27.887 13
14. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:27.897 16
15. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:28.039 16
16. Rosberg AT&T Williams-Toyota (B) 1:28.061 5
17. Button Honda (B) 1:28.119 21
18. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:28.208 12
19. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:28.332 15
20. Speed Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:28.485 9
21. Sutil Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:28.678 19
22. Albers Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:30.547 7