Practice 3: Rosberg Fastest, McLaren Slow

By Sam Cooper
April 5 2008

The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes formula one team have completed the third and final practice session for this weekends Bahrain Grand Prix. Heikki Kovalainen finished in 10th place, while McLaren team leader Lewis Hamilton finished the session in 18th place. Though its difficult to tell where the cars true pace is.

Williams driver Nico Rosberg knocked Brazilian Felipe Massa off the top spot in the third and final session for this weekends Grand Prix at Sakir, Bahrain. Nico has looked strong throughout the practice session and first heading into the ever more challenging qualifying session will give him and his team more confidence. His team-mate Kazuki Nakajima finished in a promising 6th place.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa ended the session in 2nd place, two tenths of a second shy of Rosberg’s fastest time. Reining champion Kimi Raikkonen finished in 9th place. The Red Bull duo of Mark Webber and David Coulthard finished in 3rd and 5th places; they were separated by Jarno Trulli in the Toyota. Trulli’s team-mate ended the session in a slightly disappointing 15th place.

BMW’s Robert Kubica finished in 7th place, while his more experienced team-mate ended the session in a very disappointing 20th place. While Nelson Piquet Jr ended the session in a promising 8th place.

McLaren didn’t have the best final practice session, Heikki Kovalainen could only manage 10th fastest, while Lewis Hamilton couldn’t go faster than 18th. Though, both McLaren drivers should be significantly faster in qualifying.

Times from the session are shown below.