Chinese GP: Williams continue to struggle in final practice

With the AT&T Williams team seeing their drivers in fifteenth and seventeenth after Friday practice Saturday's practice would show whether they have the speed to move forward in the times. According to Rubens Barrichello Friday was a day where the team took things conservatively and that their times would improve. The sixty minute session would get underway under clear skies with Liuzzi out first. There would be a rush of drivers coming out with Nico first out for Williams. They would just as quickly return to their pits after their installation lap. We were yet to see the McLaren's, Webber, and Rubens.

Both McLaren's would leave the pit lane joined by Rubens. The track was now empty as Rubens pitted. Rubens was running with the Williams version of the F-Duct system on his car. Rubens said that he didn't feel the rear wing was working as Petrov returned to the track. He was joined by Di Grassi, De la Rosa, and Glock. Nico would join them on the track while Petrov set a time of 1m:44.128. More drivers were coming out with forty five minutes remaining in the session. De la Rosa would go fastest with a 1m:40.788 with Glock second followed by Di Grassi and Petrov. Webber was finally out on the track while Petrov went faster with a 1m:38.559.

De la Rosa would improve with a 1m:39.342 while Kobayashi went fastest with a time of 1m:38.502. Nico was in eighth with a time of 1m:43.314 as the track became even busier. Massa was now fastest with a time of 1m:37.354 as Nico moved up to seventh with a time of 1m:38.900. He would drop to ninth as Sutil moved into second from Webber and Petrov. Alonso was now fastest with a 1m:36.908 but he was passed by Hamilton with a time of 1m:36.401. Webber was able to move ahead with a time of 1m:36.325. Button was now third, 1m:36.759, but he was beaten by Alonso. The order was now Hamilton from Webber, Alonso, Massa, Button, Vettel, Kubica, Sutil, and Kobayashi. Button would improve with a 1m:36.201 to be second.

It would appear that Williams did not run the new system on their car on Friday due to the parts been held up by Chinese customs. The Mercedes Benz cars were currently slowest. Both Ferrari's had pitted while Hamilton went even faster with a 1m:35.714 while Vettel would also improve with a 1m:36.200 to be second. But Button would take this spot back with a 1m:36.028. Nico was now down in sixteenth and Rubens eighteenth. Rosberg was up to sixth and Schumacher tenth. The Williams team would decide to remove the F-Duct system from Rubens car in order to allow him to make use of the thirty minutes left in the session. With the track quite empty Nico was still running with the order been Hamilton from Button, Vettel, Alonso, Webber, Rosberg, Massa, Kubica, Sutil, and Schumacher. Kobayashi was now seventh, 1m:36.634, while Rubens was told that they were definitely going back to how they ran on Friday. Webber was on a quick lap as more drivers returned to the track.

Webber's lap would see him move up to second, 1m:35.939. Nico had pitted while Rubens was back out on the track after the team had completed their changes to his car. Nico was seventeenth and Rubens eighteenth. Twenty minutes remaining and Button was back out as Rubens was on an improved lap running on the harder tyre. Petrov would have a
crash at the final Turn seeing him run wide onto the astro turf and then the car would turn and head straight into the barrier damaging the front end badly. The session was red flagged allowing the recovery of his damaged car. Rubens was now able to complete his quicker lap and the track would clear as the drivers returned to their pits. Petrov's car was removed as Petrov walked back to his pit.

The session would restart with the Torro Rosso cars coming out first, joined by Senna. With ten minutes remaining it was all going to happen as more drivers took to the track. Nico would be the first Williams car to come out as the drivers used the option tyre as they completed their qualifying practice runs. Alonso was now second with a 1m:35.857 as Vettel went fastest only to be beaten by Webber with a 1m:35.511. Rubens was now on the track as Nico put in an improved time with a 1m:37.784 but he would only move up to sixteenth. Rubens was in eighteenth. With three minutes left the order was Webber from Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Alonso, Schumacher, Kubica, Rosberg, Kobayashi, and Massa tenth.

Hamilton would improve with a 1m:35.564 to be second as Massa nearly lost it at the final turn. Webber would go faster with a 1m:35.323 making up a lot of time in the middle sector. Rubens was now in front of Nico been in sixteenth while Nico had dropped to eighteenth. Rubens time was a 1m:37.585 to be 2.2 seconds off the quickest time. Rosberg would move ahead of Schumacher and into sixth. Webber would pit as the session came to an end. The order was Webber from Hamilton, Vettel, Button, Alonso, Rosberg, Schumacher, Kubica, Massa, and Kobayashi in tenth.

Rubens and Nico were way down the order finishing the session in sixteenth and eighteenth. Even with their comments about the team running conservatively on Friday this session showed that both Williams cars are way off the pace and are going to struggle badly in qualifying. To run the new F-Duct system really was a waste of time and seems to show that the team is lacking direction.

Pos  Driver        Team			     Time     Laps
 1.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:35.323  16 
 2.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:35.564  12 
 3.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:35.691  14 
 4.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:35.747  14 
 5.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:35.857  13 
 6.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:35.913  12 
 7.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:36.262  10 
 8.  Kubica         Renault                 1:36.343  16 
 9.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:36.416  11 
10.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:36.634  16 
11.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:36.879  17 
12.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:37.031  16 
13.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:37.192  18 
14.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:37.240  18 
15.  Petrov         Renault                 1:37.339  13 
16.  Barrichello    AT&T Williams-Cosworth  1:37.585  13 
17.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:37.664  19 
18.  Hulkenberg     AT&T Williams-Cosworth  1:37.784  14 
19.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:39.579  15 
20.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:39.616  17 
21.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         1:39.749  13 
22.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:39.776  16 
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:40.316  19 
24.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth            1:41.141  18