MAGNY-COURS, France (AFP) — Brazilian Nelson Piquet maintained Renault's unexpected run of high form on Saturday when he clocked the fastest time in final practice for Sunday's French Grand Prix.
The 22-year-old son of three-times drivers' world champion Nelson Piquet delivered the fastest time on a day of clear blue skies and warm sunshine at the Magny-Cours circuit in central France.
As the air temperature rose to 25 degrees Celsius and the track temperature to 43 degrees, Piquet showed - at last - that he can both handle the heat and the pressure of producing speed and performance in his rookie F1 season.
Until Saturday, he had been struggling to find his best form on a consistent basis, but finally he showed his potential to the Renault team in front of another small crowd of loyal French fans.
Piquet led the way with the quickest time for most of the session, his lap on hard tyres proving to be sufficiently competitive to keep him at the head of the field. Few of the drivers who switched to soft tyres in the final minutes improved their times.
Australian Mark Webber was second fastest for the Red Bull team ahead of young German Sebastian Vettel who kept up his impressive work in the practice sessions by taking third place in his Toro Rosso.
As usual, the likely front-runners ran heavier fuel loads in preparation for Saturday afternoon's final qualifying showdown.
This signalled, therefore, that defending drivers' world champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen in his Ferrari looked strongest after clocking the fifth best time behind fourth-placed German Nico Rosberg in a Williams.
Italian Jarno Trulli took sixth for Toyota ahead of Briton Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren-Mercedes. Hamilton made another mistake in his season of errors when he lost control briefly at the Imola chicane during his run on soft tyres.
Local hero Frencman Sebastien Bourdais of Toro Rosso, Brazilian Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari and Briton David Coulthard in his Red Bull completed the top ten.
Other likely contenders for the front end of the grid Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Renault, Finn Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren and the and BMW duo of Pole Robert Kubica and German Nick Heidfeld appeared to be running with heavier fuel loads. They ended the morning 12th, 13th, 14th and 18th respectively.
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