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With the AT&T
Williams team finishing their Friday practice in eighth and tenth there was
a degree of optimism in the team over their improve performance. Saturday's
practice session would show how the team really is. Both Kazuki Nakajima and
Nico Rosberg would join a large number of drivers who left the pit lane with
the start of the sixty minute session. Kazuki would return to
his pit after an installation lap. Nico would join him. After some overnight
rain the track was dry for the session. Everyone would return to their pits,
with both Ferrari's yet to come out. Fisichella would be the first driver to
return to the track.
Fisichella would set a time of 1m:21.255. Team-mate Sutil was next out
joined by Toyota's Timo Glock. Fisichella had improved with a 1m:19.243 but
Sutil would go significantly faster with a 1m:14.207. Piquet was out on the
track. Glock was now fastest with a 1m:13.982. Piquet was third with a time
of 1m:18.501. Glock was on a quicker lap finishing with a 1m:13.803.
Barrichello, Button, and Heidfeld had left their pits. Trulli was also out
on the track. Fisichella had pitted while Piquet was second with a
1m:13.964. The Brazilian would improve with a 1m:13.154 to go fastest.
Heidfeld was now second, 1m:13.609. But Barrichello would move ahead of the
BMW driver with a 1m:13.290.
Trulli was third, 1m:13.426, while Piquet improved his lap time with a
1m:12.954. Kovalainen, Coulthard, and Kubica had joined the growing number
of drivers. Raikkonen was out for the first time with just over forty
minutes left. Button was fifth while Kubica went into ninth, 1m:17.866. Both
Kazuki and Nico were now out on the track. Hamilton and Alonso were also out
as Raikkonen went fastest with a 1m:12.881. Coulthard was now third,
1m:13.058, and Heidfeld fourth. Bourdais would leave his pit as Kovalainen
went ahead of Raikkonen with a 1m:12.555. Barrichello was sixth followed by
Kubica.
Piquet was now third, 1m:12.954, but this would become fourth as Hamilton
went fastest with a 1m:12.278. Massa had joined the session and would move
into second with a 1m:12.427. Kovalainen was now third followed by
Raikkonen, Vettel, Webber, Bourdais, and Piquet. Nico was down in
thirteenth, 1m:13.313, and Kazuki nineteenth, 1m:14.009. Alonso was in
twelfth as Nico pitted joined by Hamilton. Kazuki would also pit along with
Raikkonen. Alonso would also pit leaving just a handful of drivers on the
track, one being Massa. As the second half of the session got underway Massa
would pit while Button, Glock, Piquet, Heidfeld, and Kubica returned to the
track. Trulli would also leave the pits.
Kovalainen would return to the track with just under twenty five minutes
remaining. Alonso would also come out, joined by Nico. Hamilton was also
back out on the track as team-mate Kovalainen failed to improve. Raikkonen
would also return to the circuit. Hamilton was fastest in sector one but
would lose time in sector two and would fail to improve. Kazuki would now join Nico out
on the track with nineteen minutes left. Kovalainen would pit after failing
to improve on his third. Nico would also pit remaining in thirteenth,
1m:13.313. Massa was back out as Hamilton pitted. Raikkonen would also come
in if only for a brief stop. With fifteen minutes left the order was
Hamilton from Massa, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Vettel, Webber, Bourdais,
Piquet, Coulthard, and Barrichello in tenth.
Not a lot was changing as Raikkonen pitted along with Kazuki. The track was
starting to empty as the drivers returned to their pits in order to get
ready for their practice qualifying runs. The first of these would come from
Trulli and Button. Trulli would improve to move up to tenth, 1m:13.104.
Button would pit remaining in sixteenth. Kubica was back out with under ten
minutes remaining. Trulli would pit leaving just Barrichello and Kubica on the track. Rubens would pit while
Webber would return to the track while Kubica pitted. Next out was
Kovalainen with six minutes left. Hamilton would join him along with
Bourdais, Button, and Sutil. Nico and Kazuki were back out for their final
runs. Webber would improve to see himself in third, 1m:12.453. Massa was back out as the rest
of the field joined him with the final minutes counting down. Kovalainen was
now fastest with a 1m:12.225.
But Hamilton went faster with a 1m:12.212. Bourdais was now third,
1m:12.426. Nico would jump up the order and into sixth, 1m:12.625. Kazuki
was now tenth, 1m:13.054. Hamilton would pit joined by Webber. Kubica was
now tenth, 1m:12.971. Massa had improved with a 1m:12.312 but was still
third. Piquet was now sixth, 1m:12.457 ad Trulli pushed Nico down to eighth when he went
seventh fastest, 1m:12.457. Raikkonen was down in ninth as the session came
to an end. Like the previous Friday session it would be Alonso who would put
in a quick lap to move to the top of the times with a 1m:12.141. He had
improved from seventeenth. With the end of the session the order was Alonso from
Hamilton, Kovalainen, Massa, Vettel, Heidfeld, Bourdais, Webber, Piquet, and
Trulli in tenth. Nico had dropped to eleventh, 1m:12.625, while Kazuki was
down in fifteenth, 1m:13.054. Raikkonen was in a poor twelfth.
For the AT&T Williams team the session again showed that the FW30 still does
not have the performance to allow the team to come away from Brazil with a
good result. It would be surprising to see Kazuki make it past Q1 and Nico
Q2 in qualifying. |