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With the limited
amount of running the drivers were able to do on Friday due to the wet
conditions Saturday's practice would be a busy time for all the teams
including the AT&T Williams team. The positions that Kazuki Nakajima and
Nico Rosberg had achieved on Friday would become meaningless now that the
circuit was bather in sunshine. With the start of the hour long session
there would be a queue of cars in the pit lane with Kovalainen leading out a
large number of cars. Kazuki was out on the track while Nico was still in
his garage. Grosjean was next out as the lead drivers would start to pit
after there installation lap.
 Nico had left the pit lane, joined by the final drivers. Button had made
contact with Alguersuari as he tried to pass the Torro Rosso. Button's front
wing endplate was damaged. Alonso would quickly get down to setting a time
doing a lap of 1m:35.438. Trulli was now second from Fisichella and Glock.
Kazuki had pitted while Nico was still running. Grosjean was now third,
1m:35.264, while Nico's first lap would see him sixth with a time of
1m:40.059. Trulli would improve to be fastest with a 1m:34.478.
Raikkonen would move up to third, 1m:35.039, as other drivers started to
come out to set times. Nico was on the harder tyre and his next lap would
see him fifth with a 1m:35.757. Fisichella was fourth as we had both Force
India cars on the track, joined by Button. Trulli would improve with a
1m:33.901 and would pit while Raikkonen would go fastest with a 1m:33.453.
Alonso was now third while Button was his first flying lap. Sutil was now
fifth, 1m:34.875, and team-mate Liuzzi in seventh. Button would take
seventh, 1m:34.977, while Trulli came back out while team-mate Glock was
tenth. Alonso and Fisichella would both pit while Nico had dropped down to
tenth.
With forty seven minutes left in the session Raikkonen was fastest from
Alonso, Trulli, Sutil, Fisichella, Grosjean, Liuzzi, Heidfeld, Nico, Button,
and Glock. Both McLaren's were on the track joined by Webber, Kazuki,
Barrichello, Buemi, and Alguersuari. Heidfeld would improve to be fourth,
1m:33.933, as Sutil moved up to second while Trulli was fastest again with a
1m:33.258. Kazuki was in twelfth with a time of 1m:35.037, while Kovalainen
would miss his braking taking to the Astroturf at the final chicane. He
would continue as Button moved into fourth, 1m:33.562. Heidfeld was now
third with Sutil fifth and Liuzzi sixth.
Kovalainen was eighth from Barrichello, Buemi, and Kazuki in eleventh. Nico
was now seventeenth with a time of 1m:34.855. Webber was now tenth,
1m:34.111, while Hamilton was down in sixteenth, 1m:34.677. Barrichello
would move up to sixth, 1m:33.672, while Vettel was on his first flying lap.
Drivers would now start to pit in order to make adjustments to their cars.
Hamilton would put in a quick lap with a 1m:33.562 to be fifth. The order
would change quickly with Buemi now fastest with a 1m:33.203. Kovalainen was
now fifth from Kubica, Button, Hamilton, Sutil, and Webber in tenth.
Nico and Kazuki were now fourteenth and fifteenth. Kovalainen would improve
to be third, 1m:33.298, from Vettel who was in fourth, 1m:33.374. Raikkonen
was now fifth from Heidfeld and Kubica. Vettel's next lap would see him
second, 1m:33.108, while Buemi was still putting in quick laps moving into
the 1m:32's with a 1m:32.815. Drivers were complaining of understeer but it
was going right for Buemi who improved his time with a 1m:32.240. Kubica was
now in fifth, 1m:33.396, as Vettel also moved into the 1m:32's with a
1m:32.543 but remained in second. Kubica's next alp would see him third, 1m:32.899 but
Sutil would move ahead of him with a 1m:32.649.
With thirty two minutes remaining in the session Buemi would pit while both
Williams cars were in their pits. Nico was fifteenth and Kazuki sixteenth.
Raikkonen was backing out on the track and was in fourth, 1m:32.854. Trulli
was in sixth while team-mate Glock was down in nineteenth, 1m:34.597.
Grosjean was slowest while Button and Barrichello were in seventh and
fourteenth. Kazuki would say that the high speed balance was stable but in
the slow speed corners his car was suffering from oversteer. Nico and Kazuki
were now in seventeenth and eighteenth. Raikkonen had found a few tenths with a 1m:32.715 but
remained in fourth. Liuzzi would improve to be ninth.
Barrichello was now tenth, 1m:33.250, while Buemi had retuned to the track.
Button was now fifth, 1m:32.848, while Kovalainen and Hamilton were down in
eleventh and thirteenth. The track temperature was now up to 36 degrees.
Kazuki was back out while Raikkonen would improve to be second with a time
of 1m:32.445. Some drivers were coming out on the option tyre one being
Kovalainen. Nico was on the track with twenty three minutes left in the
session. On the softer tyre Kovalainen was up to sixth with a time of
1m:32.860. Barrichello would jump several places moving up to fourth.
1m:32.603. Buemi would go even faster with a 1m:31.989 to be 0.456 ahead of
Raikkonen.
Buemi's next lap was a 1m:31.771 to increase his lead to 0.674 seconds.
Kazuki had improve slightly to be fourteenth, 1m:33.272, while Nico was in
eighteenth. Both Brawn cars had pitted while Alguersuari, on the softer
tyre, was up to seventh, 1m:32.689. Nico would find some time moving up to
twelfth, 1m:33.068. Kazuki was now fifteenth. For Hamilton he was also
finding the going difficult only being in eleventh, 1m:33.004. Nico was now
thirteenth and Kazuki sixteenth and in the pits. Button would return to the
track while Heidfeld would spin at the hairpin while running on the softer
tyres, returning to the track and continue. Glock would move from slowest
to eighth with a 1m:32.760.
Grosjean would spin going into the chicane as more drivers started to return
back to the track for their soft tyres run. Button was out on the softer
tyres, joined by Barrichello. Both Kazuki and Nico were back in their pits
with ten minutes remaining. Barrichello was now third, 1m:32.488, while at
the other end of the field we had Grosjean and Alonso slowest. Vettel was
now second, 1m:32.414, running on the softer tyre. Buemi was still fastest
from Vettel, Raikkonen, Barrichello, Kovalainen, and Sutil in sixth. Webber
would go off and into the tyre barrier at the Degner curve. Fisichella was up to eleventh while
Nico and Kazuki had both returned to the track.
Nico and Kazuki were in seventeenth and eighteenth. Nico was told that he
was loosing time braking into Turn eleven, indicating that they are
suffering in the slow speed corners. Nico was on the option tyre as Sutil
moved into fourth, 1m:32.467. Only two drivers were still in their pits with
three minutes remaining. They would both come out making the track very busy
while Kazuki was now nineteenth and Nico fifteenth. Liuzzi would pit as
Kazuki became slowest as Alonso improved to be tenth, 1m:32.742. Kazuki's
next lap would see him twelfth, 1m:32.752, while Nico had dropped to
seventeenth. But in a big surprise Nico was able to find a big amount of
time to be second with a 1m:32.343.
As the session came to an end Trulli would move to the top of the times with
a 1m:31.709 from Buemi, Nico, Vettel, Raikkonen, Sutil, Barrichello,
Kovalainen, Button, and Alguersuari in tenth. Kazuki was down in fifteenth.
The cars were again allowed to complete practice starts on the grid. As for
the AT&T Williams team it would be difficult to draw any conclusions as to
the pace of the Williams cars as we had one at either end of the times. Did
Nico set his time with a lower amount of fuel? It will be interesting to see
how they fare in qualifying. |
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