Saturday, March 22, 2008

Heidfeld quickest in practice 3 - Malaysia

BMW's Nick Heidfeld beat the two Ferraris to the fastest time in the final free practice session at Sepang.

Until the German's late lap, Ferrari had controlled the session, with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen holding first and second positions for most of the morning.

As had been the case in Melbourne, McLaren chose not to go for a low-fuel run in this session. Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen therefore ended up 11th and 16th respectively.

Hamilton had a run through the gravel at Turn 8 on his first lap, and neither driver threatened the top of the timesheets during the hour.

Raikkonen was the first of the major contenders to set a time, and his early 1:35.729 was swiftly beaten by teammate Massa, who advanced to a 1:35.513 by the end of his run.

Both improved further when they re-emerged 20 minutes later, with Massa remaining two tenths of a second ahead as he lapped in 1:35.388.

Raikkonen moved back ahead of Massa by 0.126 seconds with his last lap, both both were beaten by Heidfeld, who produced a 1:35.019 with three minutes remaining.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli took fourth, while Red Bull showed much-improved form after their difficult Friday as Mark Webber and David Coulthard took fifth and sixth places.

Nelson Piquet also continued the promise he had shown on Friday as he set the seventh-fastest time, 0.3 seconds faster than his Renault teammate Fernando Alonso, who was 12th.

The Brazilian set the fastest sector one time of all on his last lap, only to make an error in Turns 5 and 6 and back off.

Jenson Button (Honda), Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso) and Timo Glock (Toyota) completed the top ten.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time             Laps
1. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:35.019 18
2. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:35.262 + 0.243 17
3. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:35.388 + 0.369 17
4. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:35.389 + 0.370 20
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:35.437 + 0.418 16
6. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:35.653 + 0.634 17
7. Piquet Renault (B) 1:35.768 + 0.749 15
8. Button Honda (B) 1:35.781 + 0.762 19
9. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:35.827 + 0.808 16
10. Glock Toyota (B) 1:35.911 + 0.892 21
11. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:35.927 + 0.908 13
12. Alonso Renault (B) 1:36.068 + 1.049 14
13. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:36.183 + 1.164 14
14. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:36.229 + 1.210 21
15. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:36.490 + 1.471 7
16. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:36.529 + 1.510 16
17. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:36.618 + 1.599 19
18. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:36.668 + 1.649 15
19. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:36.908 + 1.889 14
20. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:36.939 + 1.920 21
21. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:37.140 + 2.121 12
22. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:37.703 + 2.684 6

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