Final practice - Kubica surprises at wet Interlagos 06 Nov 2010
As the forecast rain came to Sao Paulo on Saturday morning, Robert Kubica threw a spanner into the works for title contenders Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari by scooping the fastest time in the final practice session for Renault. It began on a very wet track which required Bridgestone’s full wet tyres, before drying sufficiently to allow intermediates after half an hour.
The Pole pushed his R30 to the front with 1m 19.191s, after a lull which followed Sebastian Vettel’s lap of 1m 19.500s which had put the Red Bull driver temporarily at the top. Right behind the German came Lewis Hamilton on 1m 19.536s for McLaren, the Ferraris of on-form Felipe Massa and early pacesetter Fernando Alonso on 1m 19.735s and 1m 19.791s respectively, and late improver Vitaly Petrov who made up for yesterday’s error with 1m 19.887s in the second Renault.
Sebastien Buemi showed great form all through to lap in 1m 20.009s and place his Toro Rosso ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes (1m 20.056s), Jenson Button’s McLaren (1m 20.164s), Rubens Barrichello’s Williams (1m 20.320s), Mark Webber’s Red Bull (1m 20.337s), Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes (1m 20.421s), Kamui Kobayashi’s BMW Sauber (1m 20.452s), Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams (1m 20.535s, which had made him fastest for a while), Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso (1m 20.541s), Tonio Liuzzi’s Force India (1m 20.546s), Adrian Sutil’s sister car (1m 20.613s) and Nick Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber (1m 20.985s).
Things were also very close in the new team stakes as Jarno Trulli lapped his Lotus 19th fastest in 1m 22.326s to head Timo Glock’s Virgin on 1m 22.449s and Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus on 1m 22.874s. Behind them Lucas di Grassi was within striking distance with 1m 23.194s in the second Virgin ahead of the HRTs of Bruno Senna (1m 23.358s) and Christian Klien (1m 23.650s).
The skies remain overcast, with the threat of further rain before qualifying.
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