Spanish Practice Three: Williams drivers struggle


Nico Rosberg

By Andrew Hooper
May 9 2009

After finishing one-two in the final Friday practcie for the 2009 Spanish GP the AT&T Williams team would see both drivers finsih outside the top ten in the final practice sesssion with Nico Rosberg finishing twelfth and Kazuki Nakajima eighteenth. Both Nico and Kazuki struggled with traffic as they tried to set a better time with neither driver been able to better their Friday times.

 
 Spanish GP Saturday Practice
 

With the AT&T Williams team finishing Friday practice in first and second, with Nico Rosberg leading Kazuki Nakajima, Saturday practice would give the Williams team a further opportunity to assess their performance. Most teams had found the softer Bridgestone tyre durable in the conditions while the harder tyre was more difficult to get grip from. It would be interesting to see what strategies the Williams team would come up with. The session would get underway with the drivers, including Nico and Kazuki, completing their installation lap.

RosbergEveryone would complete their lap and with ten minutes of the session complete it would be Glock who would set the first lap time, a 1m:25.987. Glock would improve with a 1m:24.640. Team-mate Trulli was also out on the track and would go fastest with a 1m:24.512. Glock would lower his time by a fraction with a 1m:24.635. Kubica would move from third to first with a time of 1m:23.741. Team-mate Heidfeld was now second while Alonso would move to the top of the times with a 1m:23.261. Alonso was on the harder tyre. Both Nico and Kazuki were also out on the track as Raikkonen, on the harder tyre, moved into fourth. Alonso would improve his time with a 1m:23.074.

As the track became busier it would be Massa who would move to the top of the times with a 1m:22.387. Team-mate Raikkonen would move up to second pushing Buemi to third. Kazuki, 1m:23.263, was in eighth while Nico, 1m:23.352, was in ninth. Both Ferrari's would pit briefly with just over thirty minutes left in the session. Barrichello was in fourth followed by Vettel, Hamilton, Bourdais, Alonso, Kazuki, and in tenth Nico. Fisichella had spun his Force India between Turn seven and eight but was able to continue. Both Williams drivers would pit joined by most of the field as we had Heidfeld crash his BMW heavily at Turn twelve. He was able to get out of his car but it was badly damaged in the front left corner.

After his car was removed drivers would return to the track. Nico was back out while Alonso continued on the harder tyre. Nico was currently in twelfth and Kazuki tenth. Nico would improve one place to be eleventh, 1m:23.294. At the front Barrichello would split the Ferrari's moving into second with a 1m:22.483. Buemi was now third with a 1m:22.565. Barrichello was now fastest with a 1m:21.906 while Vettel moved into second. Raikkonen would move ahead of Vettel with a 1m:21.928. Massa would join Kimi at the top setting the fastest time with a 1m:21.547, running on the harder tyre.

NakajimaSome drivers would start their soft tyre runs with Bourdais moving up to fifth from tenth. Fisichella was sixth while Bourdais improved with a 1m:22.044 but remained fifth. Glock would move to the top of the times with a 1m:21.419 using the soft tyre. Raikkonen was able to move to fifth using the harder tyre. Nico would make a mistake at the Campsa corner running wide onto the access road. He was able to continue as Glock lowered his time with a 1m:21.377. Button was now second with a 1m:21.466. Button's time was on the harder tyre. Massa was now third followed by Hamilton, using the softer tyre, Raikkonen, Webber, Kovalainen, Barrichello, Piquet, and Vettel in tenth.

Kazuki was now thirteenth while Nico had dropped way down the order to be seventeenth. With the final six minutes counting down the drivers would return to the track for their final practice qualifying runs. Both Kazuki and Nico had returned to the track. Everyone was back out on what was now a very busy track. Massa would return to the top of the times on a soft tyre run, 1m:20.533. Raikkonen would join on in second with a 1m:20.635. Button was now third followed by Barrichello. Raikkonen would improve with a 1m:20.635 to be just behind Massa. Kubica would move up to fifth followed by Trulli, Hamilton, and Glock in eighth. Buemi had been able to move from fifteenth to ninth.

Nico would finish the session in twelfth while Kazuki was down the order in eighteenth with a 1m:22.043. Nico's time was a 1m:21.594. Both Nico and Kazuki had struggled with traffic as they tried to set a better time. Neither driver was able to better their Friday times. Based on their Friday results this was not the result that the Williams team had hoped for as they prepare for qualifying.

 
Pos  Driver        Team			     Time     Laps
 1.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:20.553  18
 2.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:20.635  22
 3.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:21.050  19
 4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:21.163  17
 5.  Kubica       BMW Sauber            (B)  1:21.239  21
 6.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:21.256  23
 7.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:21.346  16
 8.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:21.377  26
 9.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:21.424  19
10.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:21.499  17
11.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:21.519  15
12.  Rosberg      AT&T Williams-Toyota  (B)  1:21.594  20
13.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:21.629  19
14.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:21.649  19
15.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:21.685  18
16.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:21.689  18
17.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:21.909  19
18.  Nakajima     AT&T Williams-Toyota  (B)  1:22.043  19
19.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:22.232  19
20.  Heidfeld     BMW Sauber            (B)  1:23.457  8
 

Bookmark or share this story with:

Spanish Practice Three: Williams drivers struggle
Discussion started by Williams F1 , 09/05/2009 12:53
Williams F1
09/05/2009 12:53
What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment. We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals. We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards. If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing abuse@sportnetwork.net