Rosberg fastest in final Bahrain Practice

With the AT&T Williams drivers Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima finishing Friday practice in sixth and eighth positions it was an encouraging start for the team. Saturday practice would confirm whether the team had been able to make any improvements over night.

The start of the session would see over half the field come out for their installation lap, including Nico and Kazuki. Both drivers would pit after one lap. The track was now empty. The teams would now be running with their race engines and gearboxes. Next out were Webber and Kovalainen. They would both pit. The first drivers to return to the track were Trulli and Glock. Several other drivers would join them. Trulli would set the first lap time, a 1m:35.608. Glock moved into second, 1m:36.994. Trulli would improve with a 1m:34.868 as Bourdais went fastest, 1m:34.595. Barrichello was fourth.

Only three drivers had yet to complete an installation lap, including both Ferrari's. Heidfeld was now third followed by Sutil. Glock would improve with a 1m:35.805 and he would then pit. Bourdais improved by a few tenths, 1m:34.458. Trulli also pitted. Both Williams drivers were now out on the track. Bourdais would pit. Barrichello was now second, 1m:34.577. Fisichella was in fifth. Nico was on a quick lap. Kazuki would move into third, 1m:34.479. Nico was fastest in the opening two sectors. He would finish with a time of 1m:33.421, to be fastest by over a second.

Kovalainen was now second, but Kazuki would move ahead of the McLaren making it a Williams one-two. Kazuki was 0.6 seconds behind Nico. Button was now sixth, 1m:34.593. After struggling on Friday Vettel would move into third, 1m:34.098. Piquet was now fifth. Hamilton's first lap would see him fourth, 1m:34.125. Alonso was now fifth, 1m:34.227. Still we had yet to see the two Ferrari's with thirty four minutes remaining. Hamilton would improve to be second, 1m:34.046. The top four had all pitted. Webber was now fifth, 1m:34.184.

Alonso would improve from sixth to fifth, 1m:34.115. Kubica was now seventh. With under their minutes remaining the order was Nico from Hamilton, Kazuki, Vettel, Alonso, Webber, Kubica, Kovalainen, Piquet, and in tenth Bourdais. Vettel had returned to the track. Massa was the first of the Ferrari's to come out. Kazuki would also return to the track. Slowest were the Super Aguri's of Sato and Davidson. Raikkonen would follow Massa out.

Massa's first timed lap would see him move straight to the top of the times with a 1m:33.219. Only Nico had set a time in the 1m:33's. Hamilton was back out with twenty minutes left. Nico would join Kazuki. Coulthard would now be third, 1m:33.879. Raikkonen, after a few slow laps, would move ahead of Coulthard and into third, 1m:33.675. Kazuki had pitted. Raikkonen would pit. With fifteen minutes left Nico and Kazuki were in an impressive second and sixth. Kimi would quickly return to the track as Sutil moved into sixth, 1m:34.049, on what was most likely a practice qualifying run. Massa would pit, joined by Coulthard. Raikkonen would also return to his pit.

Bourdais was now fifth, 1m:33.978. Nico had pitted briefly and would be the only driver on the track out of the top sixteen. Nico would return to the pit leaving just a handful of drivers still running. Ninth placed Vettel would leave the pit lane with ten minutes left. Button would vault into third, 1m:33.600. Team-mate Barrichello would move ahead and into third, 1m:33.551. Vettel was now fifth, 1m:33.674, after his qualifying run. Raikkonen was out on the track joined by Nico. Kazuki had also left his pit with only a handful of minutes left.

Kubica was now fastest, 1m:33.024. Massa had also come back out. Glock would improve to be fifth. Everyone was now out on the track with two minutes remaining. Trulli was now fastest, 1m:32.901 and Kazuki moved into second, 1m:33.020. Nico was now fastest, 1m:32.521. Webber was now second, 1m:32.742. But Massa would move ahead with a 1m:32.726. It was all happening with Nico leading from Massa, Webber, Trulli, Coulthard, Kazuki, Kubica, Piquet, Raikkonen, and in tenth Kovalainen. Hamilton was in sixteenth.

With the end of the session Nico would remain at the top of the times. But there were a few surprises in the session with Raikkonen and Hamilton finishing down the order. Kazuki would finish in an excellent sixth. For the AT&T Williams team the prospects for qualifying were very encouraging with Nico been fastest for the first time in a practice session.

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time     Laps
 1.  Rosberg       AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:32.521 17
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:32.726 10
 3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:32.742 16
 4.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:32.901 18
 5.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:32.918 14
 6.  Nakajima      AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:33.020 16
 7.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:33.024 18
 8.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:33.074 16
 9.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:33.237 10
10.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:33.367 15
11.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:33.372 17
12.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:33.392 20
13.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:33.445 13
14.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  1:33.551 18
15.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:33.595 20
16.  Button        Honda                (B)  1:33.600 17
17.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:33.651 14
18.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:33.659 14
19.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:33.857 18
20.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:34.074 16
21.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:34.591 18
22.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:34.952 16