Formula One news
Rosberg tops practice again
21 May 2009 / Results / PhotosNico Rosberg has once again finished at the top of a practice session after the Williams set the pace in Monte-Carlo's afternoon period on Thursday. The German, a resident of Monaco, registered a rapid lap time to beat Lewis Hamilton to first place with the Brawns of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button third and fourth.
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| McLaren and Lewis Hamilton are, as expected, quicker in Monaco than in Spain |
After Brazilian Barrichello clinched position one in the morning session, Rosberg updated his fine practice record of 2009 to ensure his tenth fastest time from seventeen sessions so far this season. The Toyota-powered German sat at the top of the final classification of the day with a last-gasp and surprisingly quick lap time of 1.15.243, beating Lewis Hamilton by two tenths of a second after the English World Champion had been ahead of the Williams by just a thousandth of a second.
Behind, Rubens Barrichello remains the fastest Brawn driver in the principality so far although Ferrari demonstrated further proof of their ongoing recovery with fifth and eighth places for Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen.
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| Nelson Piquet finished the day quicker than Renault team-mate Fernando Alonso |
As the weather stayed bright and warm, Sebastian Vettel recovered from a morning engine failure to round out the top six with Heikki Kovalainen in seventh. In the second Red Bull car, Australia's Mark Webber was able to set a time quick enough for 12th place after a suspected transmission problem left the car rooted to the pit lane for over half an hour at the start of the afternoon running.
Nelson Piquet was the leading Renault in tenth although BMW's miseries continued; with the team still elected not to bring back KERS and with brake problems for both drivers in the morning session, Robert Kubica's chances of fixing the issue literally went up in smoke as his engine expired in explosive fashion at the start of his first flying lap. Team-mate Heidfeld could not do much better and ended the day 17th and the third slowest of the cars to set lap times.
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| With ongoing brake issues and an engine failure, BMW had a torrid Thursday in Monaco |
Other notable performances came from Sébastien Buemi - who, on his first F1 weekend in Monaco, was again faster than team-mate Bourdais - and Adrian Sutil, who managed 13th place; the German shone at Monaco with a fastest practice time in the wet and 2007 as well as almost finishing the race fourth last year.
As always, the drivers will now enjoy a day away from the track as Monte-Carlo prepares for its biggest weekend of the year; third and final practice before qualifying for the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix comes at 11am local time (GMT +1) on Saturday, which you can follow on GPUpdate.net.
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