Free Practice 3: In dry conditions, Trulli leads a very close session, ahead of Buemi

It was during a very tight final practice session that Jarno Trulli for Toyota achieved the best time. These Free Practice 3 sessions of the Japanese Grand Prix were marked by dry weather, and all the drivers took advantage of it to explore the various corners of the Suzuka circuit.

Jarno Trulli is therefore the leader ahead of the surprising Sébastien Buemi and his STR04. Nico Rosberg in the Williams regains some form with a good third-fastest time.

Jarno Trulli snatched the fastest time from the surprising Sébastien Buemi in the final seconds of the session. The dry weather of the day gave the teams the opportunity to complete several dry stints, and it became clear that the Toro Rosso rookie was the man to beat of the day.

The Swiss driver showed himself ready to place Toro Rosso as the leader of an official session for the first time in 2009, until Trulli and his team, Toyota, seized first place on their final lap. After Kimi Räikkönen in Ferrari and Trulli each took the lead at the beginning of the session, Buemi took the number 1 spot after 22 minutes and was increasingly faster.

Using the same hard tires as the entire field at that moment, Buemi clocked a time of 1:31.771 and had an advantage of 6 to 8 tenths during most of the tests. He seemed set to remain the leader as each driver fell half a second short of his time, even on soft tires. It was then that Trulli put in a good lap and went ahead by 62 thousandths.

The two drivers are within the same second at 1:31, followed by Nico Rosberg (Williams), then Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull and Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari. From Rosberg onwards, the field is very tightly packed as the remaining 18 drivers are within 0.8 seconds of each other!

Behind, we find Adrian Sutil’s Force India (6th) followed by Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn GP (7th) who is two places ahead of his teammate Jenson Button (9th). They are only separated by Heikki Kovalainen in the first McLaren.

Button had a very unsettling start as his car touched that of Jaime Alguersuari, the Toro Rosso driver. Their wheels rubbed together while the Briton was diving inside at the hairpin on an un-timed lap. The championship leader only suffered minor damage to his car, mainly on the front wing, and was quickly back on his feet. Meanwhile, Alguersuari continued his session, finishing in an impressive 10th place.

Romain Grosjean, usually stuck at the back even during this session, pulls off a nice move in the final minutes by finishing 11th, two spots ahead of his teammate Fernando Alonso (13th). They sandwich Nick Heidfeld in the BMW. His teammate Robert Kubica is even further back in 17th position. While Trulli is first, Timo Glock, making a return, is 14th ahead of Kazuki Nakajima and Lewis Hamilton. Giancarlo Fisichella remains at the back (18th). It’s Vitantonio Liuzzi in the Force India who closes the lineup.

Although Vettel is in the spotlight, his teammate Mark Webber finished the session only in 19th place. The Australian crashed at Degner after just six minutes of practice and was quickly pushed down the timesheet as other drivers simulated qualifying laps.

Nobody else suffered any damage during the session, but Nick Heidfeld let his BMW slip at the hairpin braking and Romain Grosjean did a quick spin at the chicane entrance.

Results of Free Practice 3 – Japan GP – Saturday, October 3, 2009: