Free Practice 3: Rosberg Back to His Old Habits

Nico Rosberg for the Williams team definitely likes the free practice sessions at the start of the weekend. After missing out on the second session yesterday, he is once again the leader this morning, being the only driver to achieve a lap time in 1.35. He is followed by Mark Webber for Red Bull and by the F60 of Felipe Massa.

After a session start conducted on hard tires by the entire F1 grid, the Williams driver set the fastest time in the final minutes but with soft tires. The two Brawns finished only ninth and tenth.

It was under a more threatening sky than ever that these free practice 3 sessions began. The teams were quite hesitant about going out on track for real, even though each driver completed their installation lap very early. The rain still hasn’t fallen, and the track remained dry.

Jenson Button was the first on the track after more than 20 minutes, but the Brawn GP driver was quickly overtaken by Rosberg after 26 minutes.

Sebastian Vettel briefly took the lead with his Red Bull a minute later. Rosberg immediately responded and regained first place with more than 2 tenths of a second advantage.

With the threatening sky, the teams equipped themselves with the soft tires earlier than usual. BMW driver Nick Heidfeld was the first to try them for a lap time of 1:37.026, improved by 0.4 seconds by Rosberg.

Brawn GP then reasserted its authority, with Button smashing Heidfeld’s time by half a second on his first lap with soft tires.

Rubens Barrichello also experienced being at the top of the standings, despite an enormous cloud of smoke at the back of his car towards the end of the session. It wasn’t the engine, but rather an oil overflow that was the cause. Nevertheless, after completing their first qualifying simulations, the two Brawn GPs were pushed out of the top 10 as other drivers improved their times.

With the switch to soft tires, Ferrari briefly topped the timesheets first with Kimi Räikkönen as the leader, followed by Felipe Massa.

But with four minutes left in the session, Rosberg returned to his usual position in practice with a lap in 1:35.940.

Webber clinches second position at the finish ahead of Massa and the two Toyota drivers (Jarno Trulli ahead of Timo Glock). Sebastian Vettel is sixth.

Räikkönen finally fell to seventh place, followed by Nakajima’s Williams, and then Button and Barrichello, who complete this top 10.

Another session without great performance from McLaren as Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen are only 12th and 13th. Fernando Alonso is still unwell with his ear infection and only manages 14th fastest. His Renault teammate, Nelson Piquet, does not do better in 16th position.

The BMW drivers are perhaps doing slightly better than yesterday with 11th place for Robert Kubica and 15th for Nick Heidfeld.

The last four rows are reserved for the Toro Rosso and Force India teams, ultimately the weakest of this season’s start. Adrian Sutil is 17th followed by Sébastien Buemi, Sébastien Bourdais, and Giancarlo Fisichella.

Free Practice 3 Results – Malaysian GP – Saturday, April 4, 2009: