UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Practice 3: Williams surprise

Tight spread over field

Nico Rosberg set a cracking pace in the third practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix. He was on top very early on and then late in the session put his Toyota powered Williams on the top spot with a stunning lap.

Brazilian Felipe Massa in the first of the Ferrari's managed to grab second quickest, but it remains to be seen if he and the other front runners are conserving tyres and hiding their qualifying pace.

Mark Webber in the Red Bull was in third position, team mate David Coulthard was in a close fifth position. Jarno Trulli was the meat in the Red Bull sandwich putting his Toyota team in reach of another great result if they can pull that form out in qualifying.

Robert Kubica for BMW was the next fastest after originally setting the fastest time late on in the session, while young Brazilian sensation Nelson Piquet Junior was seventh in his Renault, well ahead of dual World Champion Fernando Alonso.

The Finnish duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen rounded out the top ten, the latter being the first of what appear to be disappointing McLaren cars. However the top 20 cars were only separated by just over 1.5 seconds, a reasonably small gap for such a gaggle of cars.

Qualifying looks to be an intriguing line up with some cars who you would expect to make it, failing due to the closeness of the competition. Stay tuned to UpdateF1 for all the drama of Qualifying.

Written: Sat, 05 Apr 2008 09:13:53