Free Practice 3: Red flag and fastest time for Sutil!

This third and final practice session of the European Grand Prix in Valencia was marked by the red flag triggered by Sebastian Vettel. The German’s car spilled oil on the track, making it too dangerous to drive. As a result, very few laps were completed by the drivers.

This setup benefited drivers who are not used to being in the spotlight. Against all odds, it’s Adrian Sutil for Force India who clocked the best time ahead of Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) and Robert Kubica (BMW).

Adrian Sutil surprised all the spectators in Valencia. He is currently the fastest of the weekend with a 1:39.143, achieved on his last lap of the session, after surviving a late challenge from Kazuki Nakajima, Robert Kubica, and Heikki Kovalainen. The Force India driver was also the fastest just before the session interruption that lasted 28 minutes.

Thus, it is Vettel’s RB5 that is responsible for this situation since there was a large amount of debris and especially oil in the third sector of the track. It took nearly half of the session for the track to be usable again.

The dust bothered the drivers who tried to improve their times when the track was reopened for the last four minutes of the session, and it was only on the last lap that the order at the top of the hierarchy changed.

Until then, the reigning world champion, Lewis Hamilton, was in the rhythm on a track that had accumulated a lot of dust overnight. The McLaren driver, who missed much of yesterday afternoon’s session after damaging his car, completed as many laps as he could today. These laps were increasingly faster, setting a time of 1:39.950 after 20 minutes.

Behind him, Sutil, Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button, Romain Grosjean, and Kubica fought for second place. It was finally Sutil in the Force India who even overtook Hamilton with a time of 1:39.897, just before Vettel’s engine polluted the track.

Over the last four minutes, Sutil dropped to fourth place before bouncing back on his last lap. Nakajima took second position ahead of Kubica, Kovalainen, Rosberg, and Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Force India. The Indian team is truly in a strong position.

Button takes seventh place, Hamilton eighth, Jarno Trulli and Romain Grosjean, who were quick from the start, complete the top ten. The Franco-Swiss even has the luxury of finishing ahead of his teammate Fernando Alonso who is only 15th. Buemi for Toro Rosso is still well positioned in 11th place, followed by Rubens Barrichello (Brawn GP), Nick Heidfeld (BMW), and Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari).

Timo Glock with his TF109 is only 16th. Next, we find the two Red Bull drivers in a bad position. Vettel did not go back out after his incident, he is 18th behind his teammate, Mark Webber. Jaime Alguersuari is 19th for his 6th F1 practice session in his career. Finally, Luca Badoer is still last, 3.055 seconds off Sutil’s time.

Free Practice 3 Results – European GP – Saturday, August 22, 2009: