Practise 3 was pretty much a wash out. The session was planned to start at 1100 hrs local time, however due to the terrential rain the medical helicopter could not take off, therefore no racing could take place. Replays of the rain falling before the session was due to start showed huge deep rivers of water running down the sides of the track – definitely no time for 200mph racing!
Most of the drivers ended up standing around at the back of their garages with their engineers, smiling and joking at the scenes outside. Sebastien Buemi and Robert Kubica having lots of fun whilst they sat there twiddling their thumbs. Meanwhile, a very optimistic Sebastian Vettel sat in his car, suited up, helmet on, and slick tyres…
Huge cracks of thunder and lightening hit the track at around 1115 hrs, the crowd seemingly loving every minute of it. At this point, the drivers and teams didn’t seem too hopeful for any running in this session. TV replays show Nick Heidfeld helping the team sweep up the water out of the garage.
Around 25 minutes into the scheduled session the sun started to peek through, and blue sky started to appear. Drivers furiously began to get their gear on, jumping in the cockipit, all except Kimi Raikkonen who stayed sitting at the back of the garage with his fingers in his ears whilst the engineers ran his engine.
Around 35 minutes into the session lightening apparently struck the weather radar which meant that all the teams were no longer able to retrieve weather condition information. Not that they needed it, it was still raining – and nothing was happening.
The cars hit the track at 1142 local time, Fisichella being the first one in the queue to get out on track in the extreme wet tyre, with Kovalainen and Rosberg shortly after. Huge spray kicking up from the rear tyres of the Ferrari as Fisichella tentatively drives around the wet track.
Kovalainen was the first to set a time at 1.31.716, with Nico Rosberg taking that from him just seconds later. Lewis Hamilton popped in between them shortly after and after the 1st sector was already up on the lap time of Rosberg by 0.7 seconds. The track was clearly getting better.
Despite the conditions appearing to improve, some drivers remained in the garages with only 12 minutes left in the session. The rain started again with 9 minutes left in the session, with Romain Grosjean the first to leave the track at turn 1. Fernando Alonso followed shortly onto the grass in the worsening conditions by aquaplaning, lucky to keep the car in a straight line as he bobbed over the watterlogged off area.
Grosjean was soon the first (and last) casualty of the conditions during this session, after sliding in the same place his team mate had just done, he flew through the air with the car nearly turning over as it bounced across the grass, stewards running for their lives as the car headed for the barrier nose on. The session was immediately red flagged, with all cars returning to the pits as the rain came down. With that effort, the chequered flag appeared shortly after, and the session closed.
Results:
- Nico Rosberg – 1.23.182
- Kazuki Nakajima 1.23.832
- Jenson Button 1.24.122
- Fernando Alonso 1.24.125
- Adrian Sutil 1.24.149
- Romain Grosjean 1.24.389
- Sebstien Buemi 1.24.443
- Jarno Trulli 1.24.859
- Nick Heidfeld 1.24.867
- Mark Webber 1.25.440
- Kimi Raikkonen 1.25.508
- Heikki Kovalainen 1.25.685
- Jaime Alguersuari 1.26.224
- Rubens Barrichello 1.26.530
- Sebastian Vettel 1.27.047
- Vitantonio Liuzzi 1.27.341
- Lewis Hamilton 1.27.798
- Giancarlo Fisichella 1.29.285
- Robert Kubica 1.29.895
- Kamui Kobayashi 1.30.259
