The final practice session threw up more questions than answers at Valencia, as Robert Kubica headed a quickly changing order at the end of the hour, the BMW circulating in 1:38.754, just a tenth quicker than second placed man Nico Rosberg in one of the surprise packages of the weekend, the Williams-Toyota.
That the Williams time was no one off is underlined by the performance of Kazuki Nakajima, the Japanese putting in fourth fastest time in the second car just four-tenths behind his team leader.
Between the Williams pair came another surprise package, that of Sebastien Bourdais in the STR-Ferrari. The Toro Rosso was the eyebrow raiser on Friday morning only to fad in the afternoon, but today came back with a vengeance as Bourdais slotted into third and Sebastian Vettel may well have gone quicker but for a mistake on what looked like a very fast lap indeed. He came home sixth.
Felipe Massa was quickest of the big four in fifth place – half a second off the ultimate time – with team mate Kimi Raikkonen a curious 15th at the close of play, while McLaren had a quiet time with Lewis Hamilton seventh fastest and Heikki Kovalainen 14th.
Nick Heidfeld for BMW, David Coulthard in the Red Bull and Nelson Piquet in the Renault make up the top ten, with Piquet’s local hero team mate Fernando Alonso looking likely to go top three or better before a mistake blew his chances in the closing seconds.
With the field covered by little over one and a half seconds – bar Jarno Trulli, whose Toyota looked terminally ill in the pits – qualifying could spring some surprises, not least from the Force India pair who look set to make a lunge for the second session later on today.
Written: Sat, 23 Aug 2008 10:14:07
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