Rosberg thunders to top in delayed third practice
In a session which lasted 13 minutes in total, Rosberg was the class of the field
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Saturday, 17, Oct 2009 04:02
By Adam Leveridge
Nico Rosberg topped the times in a heavily disrupted third practice session in Sao Paulo, recording a time in the 1m23s, ahead of his Williams team-mate Kazuki Nakajima and championship leader Jenson Button.
The final practice session for the 2009 Brazilian grand prix was delayed when a deluge of rain hit the circuit just before the scheduled start time, as the rules state that no running is permitted while the medical helicopter is unable to take off, in case of a serious incident.
The rain eased off slightly for a few minutes, although the lighter shower was followed by another torrent of rain, turning Interlagos into a lake and forcing race control to wait before announcing a start time for P3.
Huge claps of thunder shook the circuit and loud cheers followed this from the grandstands, demonstrating that not even a lightning storm and torrential rain could dampen the spirits of the Brazilian fans.
The rain began to subside and blue sky started to appear at around 11:30 in Sao Paulo and the clock ticked down from 18 minutes, as the session would need to finish at midday to meet the FIA regulations, which state that there must be two hours between practice and qualifying.
The Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella was first to negotiate the rivers and the puddles that had gathered in various parts of the track to begin his four or five lap run of the session and Nico Rosberg in the Williams and Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren quickly followed him.
Kovalainen was the first to complete a twitchy timed lap and he tip-toed around Interlagos in 1m31.716, which was bettered by1m30.483.
The 98 percent humidity prevented the standing water from evaporating, but drivers continued to pump in the laps and Lewis Hamilton went second quickest on his first timed lap, but he shuffled down the order by his Finnish team-mate, who recorded a time in the 1m27s.
Kovalainen continued to improve, however Rosberg was consistently six to seven tenths faster than the McLaren driver with each flying lap.
Jenson Button's first timed lap was five seconds slower than Rosberg's fastest time, as he crossed the line in the 1m30s, although his running was cutailed by another heavy rain shower.
Fernando Alonso was the next across the line to record a 1m27.0 to go fourth on the timesheets with ten minutes left in the session, his wet tyres seemingly coping well with the standing water on the circuit.
His rookie team-mate Romain Grosjean, however, struggled in the wet conditions and he lost the back end of his car on the kerb at the exit of turn one, following up that with a big off, almost rolling over and crashing into the barriers as he his car got launched over a bump on the grass.
This incident brought out the red-flags with just over four minutes left in the session, at which stage Rosberg was at the top of the timesheets with a time in the 1m23s ahead of Kazuki Nakajima in the second Williams and Button.
In practice two on Friday afternoon, all twenty of the runners were covered by less than seven tenths of a second, suggesting that the qualifying session will be one of the most closely fought of the year.
Similar wet conditions are predicted for qualifying and, if the weather is too treacherous for drivers to qualify today, the session will take place tomorrow before the race, the forecast for which is dry.