After an encouraging second in the final Friday practice for the AT&T Williams team Nico Rosberg would leave the pit lane for the Saturday session but it would go wrong for the Williams driver when he would beach his car in the gravel in the entry to the pitlane. Nico would get out of his car and after a time the marshals were able to lift the FW31 out of the gravel. Nico had returned to his car to check any damage. He would get back into his car and was pushed toward the back of the pits. Nico would be seen checking the steering for any possible damage as he finally made it to the top of the pitlane where the Williams mechanics were able to push the car to his garage.

Such a dramatic start to the session for the Williams team. With twenty minutes of the session run it would be Massa who was fastest with a 1m:37.441. Second was Alonso followed by Trulli, Vettel, Raikkonen, and Glock. The Toyota driver was to have a gearbox problem that saw him return to his garage. But Raikkonen was able to move into second with a 1m:37.723. With twenty five minutes of the session run Nico was back out on the medium tyre. His moment with the gravel trap did not do any real damage to his car. With thirty minutes of the session run Nico was in sixth with a 1m:37.620. This was after a cautious first timed lap that saw him set a time of 1m:41.459.

Nico would again improve with a 1m:37.312. His next lap would see him fastest with a 1m:36.968. Kimi Raikkonen was second followed by Hamilton, Webber, Button, Vettel, and Massa in seventh. As the session started to draw to a close driver would start to come out using the super soft tyre. Trulli would use these tyres to move to the top of the times with a 1m:36.272. Nico would move up to third with a lap of 1:36.818. He was still using the harder tyre. So with fifteen minutes remaining the order was Trulli, with a 1m:36.272, from Massa, Nico, Raikkonen, Button, and Barrichello in sixth place. Nico would return to his pit with nine minutes left in the session.

As the final minutes of the session commenced the drivers were out on their practice qualifying runs. Button would move up to second with a lap of 1m:36.463. With just minutes remaining the order was Trulli, Button, Kovalainen, Massa, Nico, and Raikkonen being the top six. Nico was back out on his super soft tyres. Nico was on a quick lap in his FW31. He was fastest in the first sector followed with a personal best in sector two. He would cross the line with a time of 1m:36.133 and was fastest with less than one minute remaining. Nico would end the final practice session with the fastest time ahead of qualifying. His time of 1m:36.133 was 0.139s ahead of Button in second. Hamilton was able to move up to third in the final minute, with Button fourth, Piquet improved to fifth while Massa was down in sixth place.

For team-mate Kazuki Nakajima his session would see him finish in eighth. With the end of the session Nico had recorded the fastest time in six of the nine practice sessions held so far in the 2009 season. It will now come down to whether the Williams drivers can turn their strong practice performances into a similar result in qualifying followed by the race. So far in the season the results have not come in the races but China may see this being turned around.

Pos  Driver        Team			     Time     Laps
 1.  Rosberg       AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:36.133 17
 2.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:36.272 22
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:36.330 17
 4.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:36.463 16
 5.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:36.464 16
 6.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:36.528 18
 7.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:36.547 13
 8.  Nakajima      AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:36.560 17
 9.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:36.568 17
10.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:36.642 17
11.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:36.702 14
12.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:36.742 14
13.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:36.742 16
14.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:36.834 17
15.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:37.330 8
16.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:37.349 7
17.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:37.534 17
18.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:37.732 18
19.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:38.003 6
20.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:39.110 6