European P3: Williams continues strong showing

After seeing their drivers finish fourth and fifth in the final Friday practice session
the AT&T Williams team was encouraged as they prepared for the Saturday practice session. Fisichella and Sutil would take to the circuit first. The Williams drivers would come out and complete their installation lap and with ten minutes of the session complete the track would be empty but with thirteen minutes completed Alguersuari would join Hamilton and Badoer out on the track for their first runs. Hamilton would set the first time of the day with a 1m:42.103.

Kazuki Nakajima would join the track, as Alguersuari set a time of 1m:43.285 to go second to Hamilton. With a rush of drivers out on the track Buemi would pass Hamilton with a 1m:42.100. Hamilton would set a time with a 1m:40.656 seeing him again fastest. Raikkonen was now second with Sutil and Fisichella third and fourth. Hamilton would improve with a 1m:39.950 while Alonso was now third. Sutil would move up into second with 1m:40.954. Nico would join those near the top moving into second with Alonso third followed by Sutil, Grosjean, and Raikkonen.

Button would improve and was now second with a lap just one-tenth of a second Hamilton. Sutil would improve again and was now third. With nearly half the session run Nico would make a quick stop in his pit but would come straight back out for a second run of laps. He was currently fourth. Kubica would go fastest but we would see Sutil move ahead with a 1m:39.897. Hamilton was now third followed by Button, Grosjean, Fisichella, Nico, Alonso, Raikkonen, and Glock, Kazuki was down in fourteenth.

But the session would be stoped when Vettel would suffer a major engine failure dropping oil along the track in the final sector. It would take a lengthy period while the marshals tried to lay dust to dry the oil up. In some places the oil was off the racing line but on others the oil was on the line. The session would restart at 11:55 am local time and there would be a rush of drivers taking to the track. All would be on the super soft tyre The oil dust was from Turn eighteen to Turn twenty four. The drivers would lose huge amounts of time in the final sector. Kovalainen would set a time of 1m:41.003 but he would improve to go fastest with a 1m:39.553.

Button was now second, 1m:39.883 but Nico would move ahead of the Brawn driver with a 1m:39.732. Kubica would move to the top of the times but Kazuki would move ahead of the BMW, 1m:39.247. But it would be Sutil who would move to the top of the times with a 1m:39.143. So the order was Sutil from Kazuki, Kubica, Kovalainen, Nico, Fisichella, Button, Hamilton, Trulli, and Grosjean.

It was a session where the results really would not give an true indication of the drivers pace but it was encouraging fore the AT&T Williams team to see their drivers second and fifth.

Pos  Driver        Team			     Time     Laps
 1.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:39.143 12
 2.  Nakajima      AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:39.247 12
 3.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:39.513 12
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:39.553 8
 5.  Rosberg       AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:39.732 11
 6.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:39.764 12
 7.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:39.883 10
 8.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:39.950 12
 9.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:40.017 11
10.  Grosjean      Renault              (B)  1:40.088 11
11.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:40.118 12
12.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:40.192 10
13.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:40.230 12
14.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:40.260 12
15.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:40.402 9
16.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:40.443 10
17.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:40.879 10
18.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:40.916 6
19.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:41.125 12
20.  Badoer        Ferrari              (B)  1:42.198 14