By Alianora La Canta
June 6 2009
Saturday practise saw the times tumble by one-and-a-half seconds compared to the previous day's running. This rapid improvement seemed to catch Giancarlo off-guard a bit, but Adrian managed to take 16th, close to where the cut-off point for Q2 will be in qualifying. There were no impediments to the Force India set-up program.
9:00am - Force India, keen to start work early, send Giancarlo out as the second driver in the queue to leave the pits and Adrian as the seventh driver out of the pits.
9:02am - Both Force India drivers pit.
9:13am - Adrian sets out onto the track.
9:15am - Giancarlo joins in the fun. Adrian sets a 1:30.038 - already faster than yesterday's performance. He's third of four set times.
9:19am - Giancarlo sets a rather slow 1:34.933, while Adrian set a 1:29.406. The latter lap is enough to put Adrian 3rd, 0.814 seconds behind Massa.
9:20am - Giancarlo improves to 1:31.539. Still 8th of 8, but only 2.947 behind Massa.
9:21am - Adrian does a 1:29.158, putting him 3rd, 0.564 seconds behind Massa. Giancarlo does a 1:30.124, 1.532 seconds behind Massa and putting him 14th of 17.
9:22am - Adrian has pitted after 8 laps. He reports oversteer and finds tyres difficult to work, but the balance apart from that is generally good.
9:26am - Giancarlo has pitted after 7 laps.
9:31am - Adrian leaves the pits.
9:35am
- Adrian does some relatively slow laps - this looks like set-up work
or graining (at this stage of the weekend it's harder to tell).Giancarlo leaves the pits.
9:36am - Adrian sets green Sectors 2 and 3 to go to a 1:29.050, 0.797 seconds behind Massa and elevating him to 11th.
9:37am - Adrian and Giancarlo got green sector 1s but neither improved their position. They're on soft tyres. Giancarlo goes to a 1:29.963 though.
9:39am - Adrian pits after a three-lap run. Giancarlo does a green sector 2 without improving his overall time.
9:41am - Giancarlo pits after a four-lap run.
9:56am - Giancarlo leaves the pits.
9:58am - Adrian leaves the pits.
9:59am - Giancarlo sets a 1:29.483, moving up to 19th.
10:00am
- Giancarlo improves his time a little (to 1:29.421), but is demoted to
20th as Alonso improves. Adrian does a 1:29.076 to go 16th. The Squadra
Toro Rossos and Alonso are between them.
The session ends with practise starts.
Q2
does not look especially promising, but Adrian Sutil is Force India's
best hope. He's on the boundaries already, but if someone ahead hits
trouble, maybe he can do two Q2s in succession...