Williams driver Nico Rosberg continued his domination of this season’s Formula One practise sessions by again emerging quickest ahead of Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
In searing temperatures, Rosberg posted a time of one minute 33.339 seconds in his second sesion around the 5.412km Sakhir circuit, the seventh time in 11 practise sessions this season that he has topped the timesheets. However, to date, the German has been unable to transfer that form into qualifying, starting fifth, sixth and seventh in Australia, Malaysia and China so far — collecting a mere 3.5 points in the process. Renault’s Fernando Alonso, a lowly 18th in first practise, rose to second in the afternoon, 0.191 seconds adrift of Rosberg. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli was third, followed by the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber who scored a historic one-two for the team in Sunday’s rain-lashed event in Shanghai. Championship leader and race favorite Jenson Button could only manage sixth in his Brawn GP, 0.355 seconds behind, while Lewis Hamilton was down in 11th place in second practice, despite topping the timesheets after the first session. There was more misery for Ferrari as Felipe Massa was 16th and Kimi Raikkonen 18th in the second session, increasing the likelihood that they will remain pointless after the opening four races. The BMW Sauber’s of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld finished 17th and 20th, with McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen down in 19th position.
