Bahrain Practice Three: Williams drivers in top ten

On another sunny and hot day the teams would come out for the final practice session for the 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix. As for the AT&T Williams team Nico was running with new aero parts on his FW31 and this saw him set the fastest time in the final Friday practice. It was confirmed that the McLaren, BMW, Ferrari, and Renault teams were running with KERS. With the start of the session Fisichella was first out followed by several other drivers including Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima. On his installation lap Massa would run wide at Turn ten. The drivers would return after their installation lap. Kovalainen was stuck in the pit lane as he tried to leave. He would be pushed back by the McLaren mechanics to the teams garage.

Hamilton would be one of the last drivers to come out for his installation lap. The track was now empty with fifty two minutes remaining in the session. Nico would complain about the condition of the track after the support series cars had run on the circuit. Massa was first to return to the track. Kovalainen's problem was a throttle sensor on his car. Glock, Trulli, and Raikkonen were next out. Massa would set the first time with a 1m:36.119. Under forty five minutes left in the session and Nico and Piquet were next out. Massa would lower his time with a 1m:35.553. Glock was next with a 1m:36.264. Raikkonen was now fastest with a 1m:34.935 and Trulli third, 1m:35.673.

Massa was on a 1m:35.217 as Glock moved into second, 1m:35.152. Kazuki was out on the track. Vettel, Buemi, Button, and Barrichello were out on the track. Piquet was now second, 1m:35.101. Nico was in sixth with a 1m:35.313. Glock would improve again with a 1m:34.386. Trulli would move up to third, 1m:35.073. Nico was on a quick lap, fastest in sector two, as the circuit became quite busy. Nico was now second, 1m:34.607. Buemi was up to third, 1m:34.708. Kazuki was able to move into fifth, 1m:34.887. Only a handful of drivers were in their pits with thirty eight minutes remaining.

Vettel was up to second, 1m:34.580, seeing Nico drop to third. More drivers were setting times as Hamilton moved up to second, 1m:34.216. The drivers were running on the medium tyres as Nico dropped to fourth and Kazuki eighth. Button was now fifth. Nico would pit as ninth placed Sutil went fastest in sector one. Buemi and Fisichella were sixth and seventh. Button was told to put in a slow lap to cool his engine. Kazuki would also pit, joining Nico. Kovalainen was able to leave the pits but was slowest, 1m:35.626. But he was able to put in a quick lap seeing him move up to fourth with a 1m:34.534. Glock was still fastest with a 1m:34.115, but he was passed by Hamilton with a 1m:33.999. With twenty eight minutes left Hamilton was fastest from Glock, Vettel, Kovalainen, Nico, Button, Buemi, Fisichella, Raikkonen, and Sutil in tenth.

Piquet was able to improve moving into fifth, 1m:34.383. Team-mate Alonso was slowest, 1m:35.338. Only two drivers were out on the track. Raikkonen was back out and was able to improve with a 1m:34.759 to be in tenth. Cars would start to return to the track. Kazuki and Nico were back out as Raikkonen moved into second, 1m:34.067. Twenty minutes remaining and only a few drivers were still in their pits. Hamilton was out on the super soft tyre and this would enable him to improve with a 1m:32.975. Nico was down in eighth and Kazuki thirteenth. Hamilton's time was below the pole time in 2008. Massa running on the medium tyre was now second with a 1m:33.769. Drivers would start to return to their pits as a wheel cover on Kazuki's car would come off. Massa would improve with a 1m:33.599 to now be 0.624 behind Hamilton.

Raikkonen was third followed by Glock, Fisichella, Vettel, Kovalainen, Piquet, Sutil, and Buemi in tenth. Both Williams drivers were back in their garages with just over ten minutes remaining. Kovalainen was back out on the super soft tyre. Both Toyota's were also on the track on their practice qualifying runs running on the super soft tyres. Glock would go fastest with a 1m:32.605 to be 0.37 ahead of Hamilton. Kovalainen would improve to fourth, 1m:33.675. Other drivers would start to return to the track with just under seven minutes left in the session. Nico was back out as Raikkonen moved up to third, 1m:32.986. Glock would pull off the track on the back straight. Piquet was now fourth, 1m:33.176. Kovalainen was fifth followed by Massa, Barrichello, Buemi, Fisichella, and Vettel.

Nico was on a quick lap going fastest in sector two. His lap would see him now second, 1m:32.906. Button was in ninth. Heidfeld would move up to sixth, 1m:33.415. Kazuki was down in seventeenth but was able to improve to be
seventh, 1m:33.302. But Massa would improve to be second with a 1m:32.728. Nico was now third and Kazuki eighth. Nico was on another quick lap as he set a personal best in sector one. The session would end as Nico completed his lap remaining in third. Kazuki was still eighth as Trulli moved into ninth. Glock's Toyota was put on the back of a truck for the trip back to the pits. So with the end of the session the ten ten was Glock from Massa, Nico, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Piquet, Kubica, Kazuki, Trulli, and in tenth Heidfeld. The Brawn cars were down in fifteenth and sixteenth.

A solid result for the AT&T Williams team with both drivers able to finish inside the top ten as they make their preparations for qualifying. Even though he did not continue his habit of setting fastest times in the practice sessions Nico is looking good for qualifying and the race.

Pos  Driver        Team			     Time     Laps
 1.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:32.605 16
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:32.728 20
 3.  Rosberg       AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:32.906 18
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:32.975 16
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:32.986 18
 6.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:33.176 19
 7.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:33.195 13
 8.  Nakajima      AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:33.302 17
 9.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:33.397 19
10.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:33.415 14
11.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:33.443 16
12.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:33.478 12
13.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:33.482 13
14.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:33.534 17
15.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:33.586 17
16.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:33.686 17
17.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:33.720 15
18.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:33.726 14
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:33.962 15
20.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:34.990 7