Abu Dhabi GP. FP3 Report. Newly crowned 2009 World Champion Jenson Button's Brawn led home fellow countryman Lewis Hamilton's McLaren in the final practice session of the ultimately meaningless inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Hamilton spent much of the session heading the time sheets along with an impressive Sebastien Buemi, before new World Champion Jenson Button stole the fastest time with 30 seconds remaining.
Evidently driving in a more relaxed fashion, Button spent much of the session in the top 10 before making final adjustments to his car to leapfrog to the front. Hamilton looked in relaxed spirits all session, not electing to go out until 15 minutes had past and his 2nd place shows he will go into qualifying as a favourite for pole. Brawn's performance was underlined by Rubens Barrichello also charging his Mercedes powered car into third.
Bwemmy's great improvement in form in the last few races was highlighted once again, with the young Swiss star spending some time at the top of the pile before being knocked off his perch by more experienced heads, but he will be delighted to only be 3 tenths off the lead going into qualifying. Nick Heidfeld overcame handling problems earlier to take an impressive 5th, whilst Heikki Kovailainen could not replicate his first place yesterday as he wound up 6th, with Jarno Trulli and Robert Kubica narrowly behind him.
Adrian Sutil's low drag Force India enjoyed the long straights of Abu Dhabi and avoided crashing into Kimi Raikkonen and Trulli to grab 9th, with Raikkonen rounding out the top 10, a position that obviously did not please a visibily agitated team boss Luca di Montezemolo. If annoyed by his #1 driver in 10th, he will be need to be sectioned when he sees his #2 man Giancarlo Fisichella was essentially last.
Red Bull were down in 11th and 15th with Seb Vettel and Mark Webber, though both seemed pleased with the car's handling and in all fairness, 5th to 15th is covered by 0.4s. Nico Rosberg was an underwhelming 12th, with new crazy man Kamui Kobayashi unlucky 13th, followed by another man looking for a 2010 drive, Vitantonio Liuzzi. Fernando Alonso looks set to sign off from Renault in disappointing fashion, with 16th and 1.2s off Button the most the little Spaniard could muster.
Kazuki Nakas 17th was poor but predictable, with Romain Grosjean behind him also seemingly desperate to follow Nakas out of the F1 door. Jaime Alguesuari was last but he did not compete any laps due to a hydraulic problem which is a shame as it would have been interesting to see how he would have fared in what is obviously now a quick car. This meant the accolade of crapest FP3 performance went again to Giancarlo Fisichella.
The order of qualifying may vary wildly to what we have seen just now, with the conditions set to change hugely from now as dusk descends upon the Yas Marina circuit and the engineers have to ensure their cars stay predictable, agile and fast. Or become so in some cases.
| FP3 Times | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Laps |
| 1 | Jenson Button | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:40:625 | 21 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:40:627 | 18 |
| 3 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:40:907 | 20 |
| 4 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:40:934 | 22 |
| 5 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW-Sauber | 1:41:241 | 18 |
| 6 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:41:263 | 20 |
| 7 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:41:310 | 23 |
| 8 | Robert Kubica | BMW-Sauber | 1:41:322 | 20 |
| 9 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:41:372 | 22 |
| 10 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:41:373 | 23 |
| 11 | Sebastien Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1:41:403 | 19 |
| 12 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 1:41:478 | 22 |
| 13 | Kamui Kobayashi | Toyota | 1:41:499 | 24 |
| 14 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1:41:675 | 20 |
| 15 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1:41:682 | 15 |
| 16 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:41:897 | 19 |
| 17 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 1:42:156 | 21 |
| 18 | Romain Grosjean | Renault | 1:42:213 | 19 |
| 19 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari | 1:42:351 | 23 |
| 20 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | - : -- :--- | 0 |
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