Formula One news

Massa fastest in final practice

Istanbul meister Felipe Massa has finished on top of final practice in Turkey. The Ferrari driver topped the timesheets from the Toyota team as Kazuki Nakajima and Robert Kubica placed Williams and BMW in the top five. Rubens Barrichello was the leading Brawn car in sixth position ahead of qualifying later this afternoon.                 

A BMW technician guides Robert Kubica to his parking position in the pit lane

With temperatures on Saturday morning remaining very much the same as on Friday - with highs of 27°C (81°F) - a lighter wind at 11am allowed teams to experiment with different aerodynamic settings on their cars. Massa, unbeaten in Turkey at the wheel of a Ferrari, topped the final classification with a lap time of 1.27.983, edging out a last-gasp effort by Jarno Trulli's Toyota by the narrow margin of 39 thousandths of a second. Timo Glock ensured two red and white cars made the top three, despite spinning at Turn 1 after his flying lap, as Nakajima and Kubica completed the leading five for Japan and Poland.

The Brawn GP team has found pace since Saturday but still appears to be struggling; Rubens Barrichello finished ahead of his team-mate for the third time out of as many sessions so far this weekend, as championship leader Button reported 'strange' high-speed understeer - it promises to be the Brackley squad's toughest weekend so far.

Jenson Button looks to have a more challenging weekend on his hands ahead of qualifying

Nico Rosberg ensured both Williams cars finished in the top eight, Kimi Räikkönen's Ferrari was ninth - over four tenths down on Massa - and Sebastian Vettel, after suffering from a stoppage on Friday, completed 18 laps on his way to tenth place. Just outside of the top ten was Nelson Piquet, who reached as high as fourth having missed the first half hour of the session, with World Champion Lewis Hamilton in twelfth for McLaren.

The Toro Rosso of Sébastien Buemi moved up from being 22nd so far this weekend to 20th as Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella rounded out the field. Despite cars running wide and Glock's spin, it was a relatively trouble-free session ahead of qualifying which starts at 2pm Turkish time (GMT +2).

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