Kubica tops final Valencia practice

As ever, the final few moments of the session were frantic, but for much of practice it looked distinctly as if the Scuderia Toro Rosso pair of Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Bourdais might sweep the top spots.

Eventually, the Frenchman ended the session third, behind Nico Rosberg, who produced an inspired lap to take the chequered flag second.

And as if to prove the Williams team's pace this weekend, Kazuki Nakajima was fourth.

Felipe Massa was fifth for Ferrari, having been tumbled by the late carousel of times, which also dropped Vettel to sixth.

Lewis Hamilton, who completed the least amount of laps of the runners without problems and was seventh after an error-strewn session that saw him spin through 360 degrees at Turns 4 and 5.

Nick Heidfeld was eighth, ahead of David Coulthard, while Nelson Piquet completed the top ten having been fastest four minutes before the end of the session.

Jenson Button did well to recover to 12th, behind Mark Webber, after an early hydraulic issue, while home hero Fernando Alonso could only manage 13th after his late flyer was ruined by a lock-up.

Heikki Kovalainen and Kimi Raikkonen never really featured in 14th and 15th. The Toyotas were disappointing too; Timo Glock was 16th, while Jarno Trulli's troubles continued as he completed just two laps with what is believed to be a gearbox problem.


Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:38.754           15
 2.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:38.877 + 0.123   18
 3.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:39.009 + 0.255   16
 4.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:39.270 + 0.516   17
 5.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:39.276 + 0.522   18
 6.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:39.300 + 0.546   16
 7.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:39.314 + 0.560   13
 8.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:39.335 + 0.581   18
 9.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:39.421 + 0.667   16
10.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:39.452 + 0.698   20
11.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:39.597 + 0.843   17
12.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:39.628 + 0.874   10
13.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:39.652 + 0.898   17
14.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:39.802 + 1.048   14
15.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:39.810 + 1.058   20
16.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:39.919 + 1.165   22
17.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:40.019 + 1.265   21
18.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:40.059 + 1.305   21
19.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:40.512 + 1.758   20
20.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  no time             2