Final practice - Red Bulls replace prancing horses at the top
Saturday morning’s final practice session for the Turkish Grand Prix produced another unusual set of results as some teams focused on lap times in €stanbul Park ahead of qualifying and others completed their race running.
Mark Webber made amends for Friday’s error by setting fastest time for Red Bull in 1m 27.030s, and David Coulthard, who had been quickest earlier in the session, backed him up with third place on 1m 27.193s. Between them sat Fernando Alonso, who made it a Renault-engined 1-2-3 when he wheeled his R28 round in 1m 27.172s.
As nine-tenths of a second separated the first 16 cars, Nico Rosberg was fourth for Williams on 1m 27.365s ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa (1m 27.530s), Toyota’s Jarno Trulli (1m 27.614s), McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton (1m 27.658s), Toyota’s Timo Glock (1m 27.733s), Honda’s Jenson Button (1m 27.766s), Renault’s Nelson Piquet (1m 27.781s), Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen (1m 27.837s), McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen (1m 27.849s), Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel (1m 27.899s), Honda’s Rubens Barrichello (1m 27.946s), Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais (1m 27.948s) and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica (1m 27.971s).
Then came Kazuki Nakajima (1m 28.301s) for Williams, Force €ndia’s Giancarlo Fisichella (1m 28.573s), 31st birthday boy Nick Heidfeld (1m 28.655s) in the BMW Sauber and Force €ndia’s Adrian Sutil (1m 29.131s).
This time there were fewer incidents than on Friday, but Bourdais, Nakajima, Trulli, Raikkonen and Rosberg all either spun or erred off course, without damage.
Clearly, BMW Sauber were one top team focusing on anything but light fuel runs. But interestingly, when the other two leading teams might have been deemed to be running in similar configurations, Massa set his time just ahead of Hamilton, suggesting that qualifying will at least be very close between the red and silver cars.
