Formula One news
Rosberg ahead on Saturday morning
18 April 2009 / Results / PhotosNico Rosberg has set the pace for Williams in China's last practice session before qualifying on Saturday. The fastest time of 1.36.133 came in a session featuring little incident, although the German had a scare in the first minutes by running into the gravel on the entrance to the pit lane.
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| Sutil dropped to 17th, having been 11th yesterday |
Rosberg confirmed his 'practice master' status in Shanghai, and has now finished on top in six of the nine practice sessions so far this year. Having completed his installation run within just minutes of third practice commencing, the Williams-Toyota ran wide and found itself marooned in the gravel on the entrance to the pit lane, in the same fashion Lewis Hamilton finished his race in 2007. Thankfully for the German, the car was recovered to the pit lane by the Chinese marshals within ten minutes.
With six different teams in the top six places covered by just under four tenths of a second, unpredictability still features in China heading towards qualifying. Jarno Trulli's Toyota finished a tenth down on Rosberg as Lewis Hamilton completed another strong session to wind up third; Trulli completed 22 laps, and was once again the driver to rack up most mileage. Jenson Button, who still holds the fastest time of the weekend, was fourth as Nelsinho Piquet produced a last-gasp hot lap to promote himself to the top five.
Felipe Massa was the leading Ferrari in sixth as team-mate Räikkönen, who had been fastest earlier on, dropped back to ninth behind Kovalainen and Nakajima. Conditions look perfect heading into qualifying later, as air temperatures reached 23°C (73°F). Having said that, rain is still forecast for Sunday although not in the tropical amounts of Malaysia two weeks ago.
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| Red Bull are busy making modifications between practice and qualifying |
Rubens Barrichello appeared not to show his true colours, down in tenth place in the second Brawn, as both Red Bull cars remaining in the pits at the end of the session with driveshaft-related issues, which will be rectified easily before qualifying. Fernando Alonso was 19th for Renault, with Timo Glock the final name to be printed on the timesheet after problems meant the German completed only six laps; the Toyota is likely to drop five places on the grid for changing his gearbox.
Don't forget that you can follow all weekend sessions live on GPUpdate.net, the next of which is qualifying at 2pm local time in Shanghai (GMT +8).
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