Free Practice 3: Brawn GP vs McLaren, the battle promises

A Brawn GP versus McLaren battle seems to be shaping up for the rest of the race weekend in Abu Dhabi. In this final practice session, the third of its kind at the Yas Marina circuit, it is Jenson Button who is the fastest by two thousandths of a second over Lewis Hamilton. Rubens Barrichello is lurking in third place ahead of the prodigious Sébastien Buemi on Toro Rosso. A thrilling qualifying session is anticipated…

The two British world champions were already battling during yesterday’s practice sessions, and today the fight resumed. Button was more than opportunistic by sneaking into first place at the end of the hour. The McLaren driver was the man to beat for most of the session.

Sébastien Buemi was in the lead but left the throne to Hamilton’s teammate, Heikki Kovalainen. Both drivers were equipped with soft tires at the start of the session. But then, Hamilton literally took off with a lap of 1:41.270, 1.1 seconds faster than any other driver on hard tires, and this at the midway point of the session.

He then improved this time by 0.2 seconds, and although Buemi briefly regained first place right under Hamilton’s nose, the latter decided to switch to soft tires. Immediate results with a time of 1:40.810 just minutes before the end of the session.

The Brit seemed unbeatable until Button, back on harder tires, snatched first place with a 1:40.625. Hamilton, still on his softer but more worn tires, improved his time but failed, trailing by only 0.002 seconds. Button could have gone even faster but decided to stop his effort to return to the pits. He had just improved his first two sectors.

Rubens Barrichello jumped to third place in the final seconds with the second Brawn ahead of Buemi. Nick Heidfeld completes the top five for BMW with surprise as his teammate, Robert Kubica, is 8th, three places further back, behind Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli’s Toyota. Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) secure the last two spots to feature in the top 10.

The session took place without major incidents, Tonio Liuzzi for Force India slightly hit the rear of his car against the protective barriers. He is still 14th behind, Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Nico Rosberg (Williams), and Kamui Kobayashi (Toyota). The Frenchman Romain Grosjean for Renault was the author of spins during 60 minutes of practice.

But even though there was no accident, Jaime Alguersuari in the second Toro Rosso was sidelined for the entire hour as his team worked to fix a hydraulic issue on his car. Ahead of him, we have the winner of the last Brazilian GP, Mark Webber (Red Bull), then Fernando Alonso 16th, Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) 17th, Romain Grosjean (Renault) 18th, and Giancarlo Fisichella 19th, who still disappoints.

Free Practice 3 Results – Abu Dhabi GP – Saturday, October 31, 2009: