Free Practice 3: Sutil Once Again at Monza

Force India once again makes an impression by being the fastest in this third round of testing taking place as part of the Italian Grand Prix held at the Monza circuit. It’s Adrian Sutil who tops the timesheets, but unlike yesterday, his teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi is not far behind.

It will therefore be a battle between the Force India, but also the McLaren and the Brawn who are very well placed this Saturday morning. Jenson Button is second ahead of Nick Heidfeld for BMW. Then we have Rubens Barrichello and the two McLaren drivers.

Adrian Sutil continues his momentum from Friday by achieving a second consecutive session at the top. The German, who was also the fastest on Friday afternoon, beat the championship leader, Jenson Button, in this final hour of testing.

So it was an encouraging morning for Brawn GP, as Rubens Barrichello is fourth behind BMW driver Nick Heidfeld. The McLarens complete the top six. Lewis Hamilton is 0.2 seconds faster than his teammate Heikki Kovalainen. Tonio Liuzzi secures an impressive seventh position in the second VJM02 for Force India.

The vast majority of the session was dominated by the drivers who set the tone on Friday, namely Hamilton and Sutil. The McLaren driver was the first to hit the track, then gradually improved his time with each lap to finally reach 1:23.929 on soft tires with only 20 minutes remaining.

Sutil, still on hard tires, is in second place at this precise moment. He seemed on track to beat him but a mistake at Ascaris cost him a few tenths. He quickly recovered and did not miss the opportunity to pass Hamilton in 1:23.735. The German went even faster when he switched to soft tires with a time of 1:23.588, even though his first two sectors did not improve compared to his times on hard tires.

This means he has some leeway and even though Button briefly took the lead with a 1.23.404, Sutil came to beat the championship leader by 0.068 sec. Giancarlo Fisichella’s difficult initiation at Ferrari continues. For the second consecutive session, the Italian is last on the timesheet, but this time due to an accident at the Parabolica, which saw him end up in the tires midway through.

Romain Grosjean with Renault is responsible for the other spectacular incident of the morning. He misjudged the approach to Ascari, and the kerb was negotiated poorly. A detour through the grass is to his credit. He still managed to finish 11th, 0.3s and three places behind his teammate Fernando Alonso. Timo Glock (Toyota) and Robert Kubica (BMW) positioned themselves between them.

Kimi Räikkönen was only 12th, even though he is the favorite in front of the crowd that supports Ferrari. The rival drivers from Brawn GP, and those from Red Bull, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, are only 17th and 18th. They have driven less than most of the other teams.

Jaime Alguersuari also missed a lot of kilometers for the sister team Toro Rosso, the Spaniard was sidelined by a gearbox problem. He is 19th. His teammate does barely better in 15th position. The Williams drivers are also out for the moment. Nico Rosberg even finishes behind his teammate Kazuki Nakajima with the 16th and 14th times respectively.

Free Practice 3 Results – Italian GP – Saturday, September 12, 2009: