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Williams maintains pace in Saturday practice

Nico Rosberg
By Andrew Hooper September 27 2008
The AT&T Williams team would see their drivers maintain their Friday pace in the Saturday practice session for the 2008 Singapore GP. Nico Rosberg would finish in fifth while team-mate Kazuki Nakajima was down in twelfth. Qualifying for the Williams team should be promising with both Williams drivers continuing to show some good pace, in particular Nico who should be able to make it into Q3.
 
 Singapore GP Saturday Practice
 

With the AT&T Williams team finishing Friday practice for the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix in an encouraging fifth and ninth fastest Saturday's sixty minute practice would get underway with the team hopeful of continuing their good form. The initial pace was set by Glock followed by Trulli. Trulli had been one of the drivers to complain about the bumpy nature of the new circuit.

FW30 on the Singapore circuitAs the session progressed Glock would improve his time, 1m:46.180, but it would be Vettel who would move ahead of the Toyota driver with a 1m:45.679. Massa would move into second with a 1m:46.040. Glock was now third followed by Kubica, Raikkonen, Piquet, Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima, and in tenth Nico Rosberg, 1m:46.995. Neither of the McLaren drivers had set a time with just over half the session remaining. But Hamilton would change this by moving to the top of the times with a 1m:45.637. Kovalainen was down in seventh, 1m:46.483. Both Kazuki and Nico had pitted but were now back out on the track. They had dropped to now be in thirteenth and fourteenth. But Piquet would move ahead of Hamilton with a lap of 1m:45.249.

Vettel was now third followed by Massa, Glock, Kubica, Raikkonen, and Kovalainen. Coulthard had slowed early in the session with a gearbox problem and had yet to set a time. Webber was currently the slowest with twenty minutes remaining. Bourdais was moving up the order and was in ninth followed by Button. On his first lap out of the pits Nico would improve and move up to ninth, 1m:46.482. Bourdais would put in another improved lap seeing him now in fifth, 1m:46.133. Webber would make a major jump up the order moving into second with a 1m:45.450. Both Piquet and Hamilton had pitted. Nico would return to the pits while Kazuki set an improved time to be in twelfth, 1m:46.492.

NakajimaFifteen minutes remaining and one of yesterday's pace setters Alonso was down in fifteenth. Raikkonen's session would come to an end when he spun his car in sector two and would stall it after having missed his braking point at Turn seven. Fisichella would join Raikkonen but he would not simply stall his car, he would make contact with the barrier at the Turn ten chicane. He had gone over the kerb and found his car flying into the barrier causing heavy front end damage. Most of the field had now pitted with ten minutes left in the session. With the final six minutes starting most would come out for their practice qualifying runs and it would be Button, most likely on a low fuel run, who would move into second, 1m:45.409. He would then pit. But Massa would move to the top of the times with a 1m:45.246.

Coulthard was back out with just minutes left in the session. Kubica was now fourth, 1m:45.245, and Nico would also improve moving into third with a 1m:45.386. It was all changing rapidly as Hamilton moved fastest, 1m:45.119, but was quickly passed by Alonso with a 1m:44.506. Nico was now fifth and Kazuki eleventh, 1m:45.982. Coulthard was down in seventeenth. Hamilton would pit as Bourdais moved into tenth, 1m:45.599. So with the end of the session the order was Alonso from Hamilton, Massa, Piquet, Nico, Button, Kubica, Webber, Vettel, Bourdais, Heidfeld, and in twelfth Kazuki.

Qualifying for the Williams team was looking fairly promising with both Williams drivers continuing to show some good pace, in particular Nico who should be able to make it into Q3.

 
Pos  Driver        Team                      Time     Laps
 1.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:44.506 19
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:45.119 13
 3.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:45.246 16
 4.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:45.249 18
 5.  Rosberg       AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:45.386 17
 6.  Button        Honda                (B)  1:45.409 20
 7.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:45.425 17
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:45.450 21
 9.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:45.477 19
10.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:45.599 18
11.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:45.689 19
12.  Nakajima      AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:45.982 18
13.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:45.982 13
14.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  1:46.073 21
15.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:46.180 23
16.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:46.221 19
17.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:46.482 10
18.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:46.794 6
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:47.166 14
20.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:47.727 19
 

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Re: Williams maintains pace in Saturday practice
Posted by: GroveF1 (IP Logged)
Date: 27/09/2008 12:28

but when push comes to shove can the team maintain this for qualifying...?

Re: Williams maintains pace in Saturday practice
Posted by: pgj (IP Logged)
Date: 27/09/2008 13:34

Yes we can. I hope we abandon the idea of running heavy and look for tack position instead.

Williams and proud of it.

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