Final practice - Glock makes best of difficult conditions 13 Sep 2008
Toyota’s Timo Glock timed his runs to perfection in the final practice session at Monza on Saturday morning, as rain affected everyone’s performance for the second day running. When you ran proved crucial as light rain turned torrential halfway through.
Glock’s 1m 35.464s displaced early pacesetter, Honda’s Rubens Barrichello, and went unbeaten. Sebastian Vettel got closest for Toro Rosso on 1m 36.129s, then came Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m 36.347s), Jarno Trulli (1m 36.686s) in the second Toyota, Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima (1m 36.706s) and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld (1m 36.972s).
David Coulthard led the drivers in the 1m 37s bracket with 1m 37.015s for Red Bull, ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa (1m 37.263s), Renault’s Fernando Alonso (1m 37.270s), the Force Indias of Giancarlo Fisichella (1m 37.285s) and Adrian Sutil (1m 37.504s), BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica (1m 37.671s), Red Bull’s Mark Webber (1m 37.778s), Renault’s Nelson Piquet (1m 37.833s) and Honda’s Jenson Button (1m 37.882s).
Barrichello (1m 38.689s), Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais (1m 39.319s), Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen (1m 41.164s) and the McLarens of Heikki Kovalainen (1m 42.683s) and Lewis Hamilton (1m 46.325s) brought up the rear.
Once again, driving proved difficult when conditions were at their worst; Button and Bourdais both spun in the second chicane, while Barrichello, Fisichella, Trulli, Alonso, Rosberg, Kubica, Webber, Heidfeld, Sutil and Hamilton all had off-track excursions.
If qualifying is run in the rain, teams will at least have a reasonable idea what to expect. If it dries out, it could be something of a lottery as they ‘guestimate’ set-ups.
