Mark Webber went fastest in the third and final practice session of the weekend in front of his home crowd at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, seeing off challenges from Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari and Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes.
Vitaly Petrov, was among the first to complete a timed lap after one failed attempt, where he lost the rear-end of his Renault during the turn in to the penultimate corner.
The Russian recorded a 1m28.5 to go quickest overall in the early stages and bettered that time on his second flying lap, before being eclipsed by Felipe Massa in the Ferrari, who went quicker with a 1m27.190 while working on qualifying simulations.
Formula 1: Australian Grand Prix - Final Practice Results
Both Massa and Fernando Alonso worked exclusively on race simulations during Friday practice and languished down the tail end of the leaderboard, along with the new entries to the F1 grid, but began Saturday with qualifying simulations.
Sebastien Vettel was the first of the day to enter the 1m26s, snatching the top spot on the timesheets from Massa, however, the pace was increased further when Lewis Hamilton broke into the 1m25s with a 1m25.706. InTheNews.co.uk
Rubens Barrichello was again Williams’ pacesetter on 1m 25.852s for 11th. Sebastien Buemi couldn’t break 1m 26s and was 12th for Toro Rosso on 1m 26.104s, chased by Robert Kubica who was a disappointing 13th for Renault on 1m 26.184s. Team mate Vitoly Petrov ran well early on, but fell to 16th with 1m 26.661s.
In between the two Renault pilots, Kamui Kobayashi lapped his BMW Sauber in 1m 26.275s for 14th ahead of Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso on 1m 26.368s, with Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 26.804s and BMW Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa on 1m 26.818s completing the ‘established’ teams runners.’
Lotus once again emerged top dog in the newcomers’ category, with Heikki Kovalainen 19th in 1m 29.539s from team mate Jarno Trulli (1m 29.800s), Virgin’s Lucas di Grassi was 21st on 1m 30.800s and team mate Timo Glock next on 1m 31.114s.
The HRTs were again in trouble, both stopping with mechanical problems after Karun Chandhok had lapped his in 1m 34.334s and Bruno Senna in 1m 36.649s. Formula1
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