
Sebastian Vettel gave a powerful indication he intends to take his fourth pole position of the year this afternoon after topping the final practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Vettel was fastest by seven tenths of a second but practice was once again disrupted by a crash – this time it was Renaultls Vitaly Petrov in the wall.
With rain falling overnight the track was slippery when the session began. After the installation laps the first ten minutes were silent until Nico H?â??lkenberg ventured onto the track, making up for lost time after his crash in practice two yesterday.
Both Saubers were also out early and Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest time to begin with.
But a damp kerb at turn four caught him out and the C29 spun to a stop in the gravel bed. Then Vitaly Petrov hit the same kerb and spun into the barriers, damaging the front and rear of his Renault.
That brought out the red flags just as many of the drivers had gone out for their first runs. Marshals took to the track with brooms to clear water from the kerbs and Petrov’s Renault returned to the pits on a flatbed truck for the second weekend in a row in practice three.
Once the session resumed the McLarens went quickest but were soon relegated by the Red Bulls.
When Lewis Hamilton switched to the soft tyres he still couldn’t find the time to beat the RB6s – and when Sebastian Vettel put the option tyres on he improved his time by seven tenths of a second.
Mark Webber aborted his run on the soft tyres. There were yellow flags out at the time as the marshals recovered Adrian Sutil’s Force India, which coasted to a halt on the exit of Campsa.
Unusually only three drivers bettered their times in final practice: H?â??lkenberg, following his crash yesterday, Heikki Kovalainen and Timo Glock, the latter running heavily updated versions of the Lotus and Virgin cars respectivelu.
Pos. | Car | Driver | Car | Best lap | Laps | |
1 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’20.528 | 15 | |
2 | 6 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’21.232 | 0.704 | 11 |
3 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’21.348 | 0.82 | 14 |
4 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’21.376 | 0.848 | 16 |
5 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’21.583 | 1.055 | 14 |
6 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’21.749 | 1.221 | 16 |
7 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’22.013 | 1.485 | 14 |
8 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’22.091 | 1.563 | 15 |
9 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1’22.242 | 1.714 | 20 |
10 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’22.377 | 1.849 | 12 |
11 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’22.400 | 1.872 | 18 |
12 | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’22.412 | 1.884 | 11 |
13 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’22.527 | 1.999 | 20 |
14 | 10 | Nico H?â??lkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1’22.634 | 2.106 | 16 |
15 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’22.926 | 2.398 | 20 |
16 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1’22.953 | 2.425 | 16 |
17 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1’23.597 | 3.069 | 12 |
18 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1’23.896 | 3.368 | 5 |
19 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’24.610 | 4.082 | 14 |
20 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’24.745 | 4.217 | 11 |
21 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’25.722 | 5.194 | 15 |
22 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’25.855 | 5.327 | 14 |
23 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 1’26.611 | 6.083 | 18 |
24 | 21 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 1’30.246 | 9.718 | 6 |
Combined practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Total laps |
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’22.026 | 1’19.965 | 1’20.528 | 61 |
2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’22.011 | 1’20.175 | 1’21.232 | 73 |
3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’21.716 | 1’20.757 | 1’21.583 | 54 |
4 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’22.258 | 1’20.819 | 1’22.091 | 64 |
5 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’21.134 | 1’21.191 | 1’21.348 | 58 |
6 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1’22.202 | 1’21.202 | 1’22.242 | 78 |
7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’22.070 | 1’21.271 | 1’22.013 | 60 |
8 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’22.975 | 1’21.302 | 1’21.749 | 63 |
9 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’21.672 | 1’21.364 | 1’21.376 | 56 |
10 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’21.518 | 1’22.377 | 44 | |
11 | Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’21.672 | 1’22.527 | 60 | |
12 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1’23.284 | 1’21.904 | 1’23.597 | 63 |
13 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’22.492 | 1’21.931 | 1’22.412 | 66 |
14 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’22.588 | 1’22.184 | 1’22.400 | 79 |
15 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1’23.312 | 1’22.192 | 1’22.953 | 71 |
16 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1’22.397 | 1’22.435 | 1’23.896 | 63 |
17 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’23.110 | 1’22.449 | 1’22.926 | 85 |
18 | Nico H?â??lkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1’23.471 | 1’23.765 | 1’22.634 | 43 |
19 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’23.030 | 21 | ||
20 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’26.244 | 1’24.209 | 1’24.610 | 60 |
21 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’25.329 | 1’24.894 | 1’24.745 | 50 |
22 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’26.694 | 1’25.066 | 1’25.855 | 68 |
23 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’26.340 | 1’26.596 | 1’25.722 | 59 |
24 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 1’25.972 | 1’26.611 | 41 | |
25 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 1’27.752 | 1’26.152 | 1’30.246 | 58 |
26 | Christian Klien | HRT-Cosworth | 1’27.250 | 26 |
2010 Spanish Grand Prix
- 2010 Spanish Grand Prix – the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
- Whitmarsh: Rim failure put Hamilton out
- Hamilton denies Webber a perfect result (Spanish Grand Prix facts and stats)
- Spanish Grand Prix in pictures
- Super start helps Alguersuari to points finish (Spanish Grand Prix analysis)
- Spanish Grand Prix fastest laps
- Webber dominates as Hamilton crashes out of second
- Spanish Grand Prix result
- Championship points after Spain
- Rate the race – Spain
Sam
8th May 2010, 11:35
could today be the first time Schumacher gets ahead of Rosberg? if he does, then i think we can safely assume he’s back on form
Tim Sculthorpe
8th May 2010, 11:42
It’s tough to see past Vettel for either pole or the win, especially if it’s dry.
I’m going to be looking closely at Rosberg this weekend. If Mercedes have changed the car purely to suit Schumacher and it makes Nico go backwards, he can quite rightly feel pretty aggreived at that. He’s done nothing in the first four races to justify the team leaving him hanging out to dry.
Vishy
8th May 2010, 12:40
I don’t get it. First it is argued that given the same equipment MSC is so much slower than Roseberg. Now again the same equipment is given to both drivers and you are saying that they are helping MSC? Don’t you see the irony there?
US_Peter
8th May 2010, 22:48
Not to mention the fact that like MSC, ROS has stated that he prefers a neutral to oversteering car, not an understeering car. The changes should benefit them both.
MigueLP
8th May 2010, 11:42
WHO wasnt predicting red bulls dominance its very hard to gain enough performance in just a race to beat the red bulls i not a fan but i ussually bet on them like i did in this race people were full of hope for this race mclaren was fastest in practice one like always which doesnt means that mclaren is going to win the race fortunatly they won 2 lottery races stealing precious points to red bull that may be usefull when mclaren reaches red bull pace
John
8th May 2010, 11:44
He’s back on his new chasis
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
8th May 2010, 11:51
I think the cooler-than-expected conditions are helping Red Bull. The RB6 obviously produced very high amounts of downforce and works its tyres hard – so much so they were hurting their intermediate tyres in Spain. But on a cool, green track like we had this morning they’ve got a substantial advantage.
JSC
8th May 2010, 12:24
Yeah Keith I think you’re spot on with that analysis. You’d think that this might disadvantage them in a hot dry race, but we saw the opposite in Bahrain for Vettel. I think the initial advantage of getting the tyres up to working temperatures usually means that they will be far enough ahead after 10-15 to be able to coast and conserve the tyres before degradation becomes a problem for them.
Which is why the Bahrain example becomes so important, we saw Vettel being able to pull away and conserve his tyres, but Webber was unable to. I’d love to have seen the Bridgestone data from both cars at that race, but I’m sure that as we move to the warmer races the picture will become clearer.
steph
8th May 2010, 11:53
So Virgins and Chandhok have a 5 place grid penalty and Senna fined for speeding in the pitlane. Not so good for them.
I don’t get all the criticism of Mercedes. Goven Rosberg’s form they won’t want to shaft him but simply make things easier for the both of them. Rosberg has said the new changes may help him too and the car before had too much understeer for his liking too. Schumi should be quicker than before but in my opinion not because of some plot, but because Schumacher’s style will be more grateful and benefit more from the changes made while Nico will improve just not by as much. Plus, Rosberg admitted he went the wrong way with the set up yesterday and it’s only practice so it’s far too early in my opinion to start critising them. I genuinely think after everything Ross said and did last year that he wants to win but now in a more equal environment, he’s in a tough situation but I think he’s doing a good job. Just my own opinion though!
I’m pleased RBR have a good car but I’m starting to get very annoyed a how blooming quick it is. Not only are pole predictions easy but it’s very deflating for the opposition! Least Newey’s cars are fragile…
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
8th May 2010, 12:25
Chandhok too? Why?
JSC
8th May 2010, 12:33
I think he changed his gearbox (Chandhok)
steph
8th May 2010, 16:52
Yeah it was a gearbox change I think. 5live said he would have the penalty yesterday. Sorry this reply is stupidly late!
Alex-Ctba
8th May 2010, 12:04
Schuey is back again
vettelfan
8th May 2010, 12:15
Vettel, Hulkenberg, Buemi, Rosberg and Alguersuari all called to stewards for setting fastest time under yellow flags.