A Strange Saturday Practice for Brawn GP
After the very odd Friday in which Brawn did very well in the morning…..only to perform very poorly in the afternoon, I must admit I wasn’t sure what to expect from Saturday practice.
Of course, Brawn have always been weaker in the practice sessions, but it was worrying how quickly Red Bull were lapping when compared to the Brackley lads.
The morning session was extremely cold and thanks to a British night before, the track was wet. These conditions meant that the likelihood of much action looked slim (as the teams didn’t want to waste tyres and engines in these unfavourable conditions).
At least the cars all completed their evaluation laps. The Brawns waited a little longer than most, electing to go out five minutes into the session. Then after these laps……silence….
After 14 minutes of nothing, Vettel was back out on track, on his own, but only for another evaluation run. Three minutes later…Massa was the new lone ranger…and yes, he stayed out…only to re-enter the pits before actually setting a time!
It took just over 20 minutes, but finally Piquet set a time of 1:28:756. The Brazilian then went on to knock time off his first attempt.
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With half an hour gone, Piquet was still on top…but only on top of four cars. Five minutes later there were only seven times set, but this time Friday's whiz-kid was on top (Rosberg with a 1:22:268).
We finally got some Brawn action when, with 22 minutes left, Jenson set a time of 1:24:272 (P9). Rubens’s first time was 1:31:544, and that put him in P16.
On his second attempt, Jens stuck himself up to P6, whilst Rubens could only get up to P14. Strangely, it was Rubens that was really suffering this session (it is usually Jens who struggles during practice).
With a 1:21:117, Jenson got up to P4. Rubens’s third try got him up to P10, just as Webber set the pole time of 1:20:571.
Jenson was easily the fastest Brawn today, and before long, he had got himself up to P2 (1:20:484). The only man faster at this stage was Nakajima.
With 10 minutes left, Vettel was now first (1:19:809), Jens was P4, and Rubens, P15. Five minutes later, everyone was back out on soft tyres, having completed their long run tests. By this stage Jens was in P8, Rubens…P18.
Rubens did manage to finish the morning ahead of his team mate in P10 (1:20:028), but the Brazilian had not been strong. Jenson finished in P12 (1:20:157), but was probably pretty pleased with his performance relative to yesterday.
Do I need to tell you who finished on top? Of course not! It was Rosberg!
In conclusion, I would say that this was a slightly strange session, but that Brawn seemed to have worked very hard on the car overnight.
I still think the Red Bulls will lock out the front row, but Jens and Rubens may have a better shot at the second row than yesterday suggested.
1 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:18.899
2 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:19.102
3 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:19.125
4 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:19.371
5 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:19.596
6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:19.855
7 Timo Glock Toyota 1:19.868
8 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:19.917
9 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:19.946
10 Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 1:20.028
11 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:20.048
12 Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes 1:20.157
13 Nelsinho Piquet Renault 1:20.232
14 Sebastien Bourdais STR-Ferrari 1:20.459
15 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:20.548
16 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Mercedes 1:20.572
17 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:20.638
18 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:20.696
19 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 1:21.024
20 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1:21.039
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