Formula One news
Rosberg fastest in final practice
04 April 2009 / Results / PhotosNico Rosberg has placed himself back at the top of the timesheets after final practice in Malaysia. The Williams finished a tenth of a second ahead of Mark Webber's Red Bull with Felipe Massa and Jarno Trulli making it four constructors in the top four places. The Brawn GP cars finished the session at the bottom of the top ten, with World Champion Lewis Hamilton in twelfth.
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| Rubens Barrichello will start Sunday's race five places further back from where he qualifies |
During an incident-free session, Rosberg posted the quickest lap time of 1.35.940, which was just over two tenths of a second slower than Kimi Räikkönen's leading time of the weekend so far. Behind Rosberg, Mark Webber was second for Red Bull with Felipe Massa continuing Ferrari's good form to round out the top three.
Toyota are looking good heading towards qualifying, with Trulli and Glock both in the top five despite the German running off the track at one point in the eleventh corner. Vettel made sure both Red Bulls finished in the first six places, as Räikkönen was seventh having been at the top of the timesheets for some time during the one-hour session.
Japan's Nakajima was eighth, with the two Brawn GP cars of Barrichello and Button rounding out the top ten; all was not well for the new team, however, as Button first reported a 'puff of smoke' from his car on the exit of Turn 2. Just minutes later, his team-mate's BGP 001 also gave out a large amount of white smoke at the same corner, but still went on to set his fastest time of the session; the Brazilian will start five places further back from where he qualifies following a gearbox change yesterday.
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| The Hamilton party arrived at the circuit keen to put the events of Friday behind them |
The BMWs of Kubica and Heidfeld moved from 17th and 20th yesterday to 11th and 15th today, with World Champion Lewis Hamilton behind the former, in 12th position. Fernando Alonso remained at the rear end of the timing pages for much of session, before eventually posting a more respectable effort to finish 14th. New boy Sébastien Buemi showed another strong performance, despite being pushed back down to 18th at the end of the session; confidently faster than team-mate Bourdais again, Buemi placed as high as eighth. Giancarlo Fisichella, having crashed in second practice, had a less busy session by finishing 20th.
You can join GPUpdate.net for qualifying later on today, which begins at 5pm local Malaysian time (GMT +8); with rain forecast and much unpredictability expected, we could see a strange grid order on Sunday.
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