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French GP Prac3: Piquet Jr Finally Shows Some Potential

Finally Piquet Jr can take a breather. Copyright AP Photos/David Ramos

The recent trend of Practice 3 seems to be that the top teams - Ferrari, McLaren and BMW would take a more conservative stand during the session, while letting the normal mid-field teams take the centre stage. For the final practice session of the French GP, Nelson Piquet Jr, in his French-made Renault R28, tops the timesheet.

Having yet scored a single point in the past grand prixes, the rookie Piquet Jr looks dangerously close to be losing his racing seat unless he finally shows some talent which Flavio Briatore picked him in his team for. However, the French GP this weekend could prove to be a turning point for the youngster as he followed the footsteps of teammate Fernando Alonso to manage a fastest timing in the practice session (Alonso had topped the timesheet during Practice 2). Again, I'm not ruling out the possibility of this being a PR stunt by the Renault team since it is their 'home' race this weekend.

The Red Bull of Mark Webber set the 2nd fastest time, while Red Bull's sister team Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel took the 3rd place. Williams' Nico Rosberg was the 4th fastest, ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen.

Jarno Trulli continued his good form for the French GP and was faster than McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who will be penalised this weekend for 10 grid places. The same penalty will be imposed upon Nico Rosberg as well, so these two drivers definitely need to step up their pace during the qualifying session so as not to end up too far back the field during tomorrow's starting grid.

Felipe Massa found himself only 9th fastest, but again, this could be a conservative practice session for the Brazilian. The lesson learnt last grand prix when Sebastian Vettel crashed his Toro Rosso so badly that his car could not be repaired in time for the Canadian GP qualifier is clearly taken note of by the top teams.

McLaren's other driver, Heikki Kovalainen, looked uninspiring in his 13th place. The same could be said for the current leader of the Drivers' Championship Robert Kubica who is 14th.

Whether Renault's pace during the practice sessions (and perhaps the qualifying session when they could very well be lightly fueled) and if the top teams are merely playing a conservative game, all will be revealed in 1 hour's time when the French GP Qualifying Session begins.

Times
01 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:15.750 19 laps
02 M. Webber Red Bull 1:15.759 14 laps
03 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:15.827 21 laps
04 N. Rosberg Williams 1:15.974 17 laps
05 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:16.003 18 laps
06 J. Trulli Toyota 1:16.147 20 laps
07 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:16.182 16 laps
08 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:16.235 18 laps
09 F. Massa Ferrari 1:16.256 17 laps
10 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:16.282 18 laps
11 T. Glock Toyota 1:16.344 20 laps
12 F. Alonso Renault 1:16.437 20 laps
13 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:16.545 16 laps
14 R. Kubica BMW 1:16.617 20 laps
15 K. Nakajima Williams 1:16.644 16 laps
16 J. Button Honda 1:16.651 20 laps
17 R. Barrichello Honda 1:16.658 17 laps
18 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:16.687 19 laps
19 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:17.365 23 laps
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:17.612 21 laps
Times from PlanetF1.com

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

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