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Formula One
F1: Alonso Leads Final Practice In Bahrain
It looks to be a Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull battle shaping up...
SPEED Staff  |  Posted March 13, 2010   Sakhir (BHR)
Fernando Alonso failed to finish suffering engine problems near the end after fighting a shifting problem nearly the entire race. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Fernando Alonso led the way for Ferrari in Saturday’s final practice in Bahrain.

Alonso put down the fastest lap of the weekend with a 1:54.099 late in the 60 minute session. Nico Rosberg who has set the pace for Mercedes all weekend was second with a 1:54.368.

Mark Webber in the Red Bull RB6 was third with Michael Schumacher fourth. Sebastian Vettel in the second Red Bull was fifth with Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari sixth. Jenson Button for McLaren was seventh, Robert Kubica in the Renault eighth with Vitantonio Liuzzi for Force India and Nico Hulkenberg in the Williams machine rounding out the top 10.

The bigger stories of the session though were outside the top 10.

Lewis Hamilton was forced in with a failure of the left front brake duct on the McLaren Mp4-25 about three quarters of the way through the session. He had to sit out the remainder of the session after turning only eight laps, none with the lighter fuel load or softer tires needed for a mock qualifying run.

The HRT F1 team will only have one car on the grid as the problems continued for Karun Chandhok. The engineers had worked all night on the car, which has yet to turn a lap, and when Chandhok tried to enter the session the car would not go into gear. The crew wasn’t able to fix the problem during the 60 minute session. After some confusion over the rules, it was determined that Chandhok, who has not turned a lap in any practice session, can attempt to qualify. The F1 sporting regulations state that a driver who has not run at least one practice lap may not race. The qualifying session is officially called a 'qualifying practice' thus allowing Chandhok one more shot at making the race.
Timo Glock lost a wheel during Saturday's final practice in Bahrain. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Chandhok’s teammate Bruno Senna was able to run 11 laps and did show some improvement from Friday only 10 seconds off the pace of the leader as opposed to the 12 seconds he was off on Friday.

The troubles for Virgin Racing meanwhile involved both their cars. Lucas Di Grassi was only able to turn 2 laps before a gearbox problem forced him to park for the rest of the session. His teammate Timo Glock lost a left front wheel while on track and was forced to limp to the garage. FIA stewards later determined that the wheel had not been tightened correctly, possibly due to a failed air gun, leading to speculation that penalties may be forthcoming.

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