Fernando Alonso Best in Final Practice Session, but Brawn Look Good
After a day off, the drivers return to the track for the final practice session in Monaco. Up to this point, both Brawns have gone pretty well, but Rubens seems to have the upper hand on Jenson.
Could Rubens start his birthday off (happy B-day, Rubes!) with a great Saturday practice?
Saturday Practice
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Practice Three: 09:00am - 10:00am, local time (10:00am - 11:00am, British time)
A big pack of drivers kick the session off and exit the pits to do their instillation laps. As per usual the Brawns seemed to wait a while before completing their sighters.
Vettel waited for some clear air to do his first lap, followed by Alonso, then Hamilton, and finally the Brawns were out in the sun.
After all of the teams had returned to the pits, there was a short period of tweaking, before Fisichella and the Toyotas emerged from the pit lane to start the session properly and set some times.
Fisi set the first time with a 1:22:045. The Force India Driver then began to trade poles with the Toyotas for a short while.
Jensons’s first time of 1:20:111 saw the Brit take P8, nineteen minutes in. Rubens first attempt gave him P11 (1:21:033). Then both Brawns returned to the pits. When Jens came out again, he didn’t look particularly fast and only raised himself to P5.
Rubens, we found out was having trouble with wheel spin and under-steer and so needed some work done on his car; with 25 minutes left, Rubens was back out again.
Jenson continued to lap around P6, whilst Rubens' first time only put the Brazilain birthday boy up to P13 (from P19!).
However, after a second attempt, Rubens managed to thrash out a time good enough for fourth, and just one lap later, he was in second (1:15:832).
Jenson was having a very quiet morning and with 20 minutes left was in P9. The Championship leader did manage to get up to P6 (again), but I was starting to be a bit concerned.
Lewis Hamilton was the first man to fit super soft tyres and went pretty fast (though not as fast as was expected).
With 10 minutes to go, Jens was out on the softer compound too. On his first go he went up to P5, but he was extremely fast in the middle sector.
On his second attempt, good old Jens became the first Brawn driver to put the BGP001 on pole on Saturday (1:15:233).
Rubens too had fitted the super softs, but despite looking very fast, he lost time in the final sector and only gained P3 (1:15:286). Just as I was about to close my note pad, with two minutes left (and Jenson first, Rubens, third), Fernando Alonso sped across the line and finished the session on top (1:15:164).
I think today was far more encouraging than Thursday for Brawn. The current constructor’s leaders should put up a decent fight in qualifying later. I would watch out for the Ferraris, Lewis Hamilton and arguably Alonso, though!
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