FP3 at Bahrain, News

Lewis Hamilton beat Kimi Raikkonen by just 0.006 seconds at the end
of an extremely competitive final practice session at Sakhir, ahead of
Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

The last hour of practice before qualifying saw continual changes at
the top of the leader board as Ferrari, McLaren and BMW proved closely
matched, and Anthony Davidson starred again for Super Aguri.

Raikkonen was the first of the leading drivers to take to the track, lapping in 1:33.480 after 19 minutes.

Massa and Hamilton went second and third shortly afterwards, each
setting fastest sector times but not stringing a complete lap together.

Both drivers improved later on their first runs, as Massa went
fastest on 1:33.307, while Hamilton improved to second, 0.149 seconds
behind the Ferrari.

Raikkonen went off at Turn 13 as he tried to respond, but five minutes later he retook the top spot with a 1:33.231.

The second runs saw more place-swapping, as Massa reclaimed first
place, three tenths clear of Raikkonen, moments before Hamilton beat
the Brazilian by 0.028 seconds.

But Ferrari and McLaren were then usurped by BMW, as with 12 minutes
remaining Nick Heidfeld produced two laps good enough to lead the
session, and Robert Kubica moved up to complete a team one-two.

Massa looked set to retake first position until he came across
yellow flags for Scott Speed’s Toro Rosso, which had parked trackside
on the exit of Turn 10. He continued and was about to go quicker still
until he ran wide onto the sand at the final corner.

Raikkonen avoided such errors and went fastest with a 1:32.549, but
seconds later Hamilton crossed the line with a time six-thousandths
faster, which stood as the best of the session.

Behind Hamilton, Raikkonen and the BMWs, Davidson took fifth with a
stunning late lap in the Super Aguri, ahead of Massa and Fernando
Alonso, who had a low key session and ended the hour seven tenths of a
second slower than his teammate.

Mark Webber was eighth for Red Bull despite going off the road at
Turn 11, ahead of the two Renaults, who were both running with heavy
fuel loads in order to test brake wear in race conditions.

It was an eventful morning for the four Red Bull-owned cars, as in
addition to Speed’s problem and Webber’s error, Vitantonio Liuzzi
nearly left the garage with a tyre blanket still attached to his car,
and David Coulthard slowed to a crawl on track in the final minutes.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time             Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:32.543          12
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:32.549  0.006   16
 3.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:32.652  0.109   15
 4.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:32.755  0.212   15
 5.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:32.900  0.357   20
 6.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:32.950  0.407   12
 7.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:33.235  0.692   11
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:33.399  0.856   14
 9.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:33.602  1.059   17
10.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:33.605  1.062   21
11.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:33.614  1.071   14
12.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:33.658  1.115   17
13.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:33.700  1.157   18
14.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:33.724  1.181   22
15.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:33.826  1.283   14
16.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:34.023  1.480   20
17.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:34.082  1.539   21
18.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:34.397  1.854   17
19.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:34.791  2.248   12
20.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:35.144  2.601   11
21.  Albers        Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:35.395  2.852   22
22.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:35.436  2.893   18