Webber sets pace in Bahrain practice

Mark Webber set the fastest time of the weekend so far in final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Williams driver, who had not figured at the top of the timing sheets so far in Sakhir, clocked a lap of one minute 29.527 seconds towards the end of the last practice session before qualifying begins.

That put him just ahead of Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher with Giancarlo Fisichella’s Renault in third spot.

Jarno Trulli continued Toyota’s good form by taking fourth with Kimi Raikkonen fifth for McLaren and world championship leader Fernando Alonso sixth in a Renault.

World champion Michael Schumacher was a disappointing ninth in the new Ferrari, two places ahead of the BAR-Honda of Jenson Button. David Coulthard was 12th for Red Bull.

Rubens Barrichello sat out the session, as he did first practice, after a gearbox problem on his new Ferrari.

The Brazilian suffered the problem yesterday and his gearbox has been rebuilt but Ferrari are unwilling to risk the unit prior to first qualifying later today with no spares available to them.

A new gearbox is being flown to Bahrain from Italy and will be fitted in time for tomorrow’s final qualifying.

Raikkonen was first out for McLaren but his early effort was swiftly beaten by Ralf Schumacher.

Button set the fastest lap of the weekend so far with 14 minutes gone before Ralf Schumacher lost the rear of his Toyota under braking and suffered a huge spin at turn 10. He was able to continue to the pits but his Michelin tyres were badly damaged.

With 25 minutes gone Raikkonen sliced half a second off Button’s best to become the first man this weekend to lap the Sakhir track in under 90 seconds. His moment of glory did not last long, however, as Trulli edged ahead.

Ralf Schumacher further lowered the mark and Giancarlo Fisichella moved into second soon after. But Webber took the honours with his late lap.

In this morning’s first session, world champion Schumacher set the standard with a lap of 1min 30.552secs. Alonso was the closest to Schumacher’s time but the Renault driver was over a second down.

McLaren’s Pedro de la Rosa, filling in for the injured Juan Pablo Montoya, was third with Toyota’s Trulli fourth. Christian Klien gave Red Bull fifth, just ahead of the second Toyota of Ralf Schumacher.