Rosberg Fastest in Wet Practice

Constant rain preceded the session after beginning overnight, and stopped just prior to the start. The track was very wet as a result, with a number of drivers sliding all over the circuit during the session.

Nelson Piquet Jr was the first man on track, and also set the early fastest times before Rosberg found his groove, running faster each time around to finish with a time of 2:15.436 just as the session finished.

Kovalainen, who had never raced at the circuit previously, took a slow and steady approach to the session, and also claimed his fastest lap as the session drew to a close.

At the mid point of the session, Jose Maria Lopez ran into the gravel at Pouhon, while Clivio Piccione spun across the track and ran sideways into the wall and Alex Premat also had an accident. As a result, the session was red flagged to allow marshals to remove the stricken vehicles.

Piquet looked to be on for a good time late in the session after it restarted, but slowed to a crawl into the Bus Stop, perhaps looking to keep an advantage under the radar of his competitors as they searched for a drier line and more speed.

Gimmi Bruni ran his first session for the Durango team, but his gamble to switch teams didn't bear fruit in free practice. He was 21st of 24 runners, immediately behind Coloni drivers Toni Vilander and Mathias Lauda.

With the top five drivers in the session - Rosberg, Kovalainen, Speed, Premat and Adam Carroll - also being the top five men in the championship, qualifying promises to be a very intriguing spectacle this afternoon.

Pos  Driver      Team                 Time  
 1.  Rosberg     ART Grand Prix       2:15.436
 2.  Kovalainen  Arden International  2:16.440
 3.  Speed       iSport International 2:16.495
 4.  Premat      ART Grand Prix       2:16.916
 5.  Carroll     Super Nova           2:16.945
 6.  Garcia      Racing Engineering   2:17.055
 7.  Negrao      Hitech Piquet Sports 2:17.112
 8.  Piquet      Hitech Piquet Sports 2:17.234
 9.  Viso        BCN  Competicion     2:17.496
10.  Lopez       DAMS                 2:17.539
11.  Lapierre    Arden International  2:17.885
12.  Artam       iSport International 2:17.954
13.  Jani        Racing Engineering   2:17.960
14.  Mondini     DPR                  2:17.994
15.  Pantano     Super Nova           2:18.002
16.  Alvarez     Campos Racing        2:18.458
17.  Fauzy       DAMS                 2:18.564
18.  Hernandez   Campos Racing        2:19.056
19.  Vilander    Coloni Motorsport    2:19.127
20.  Lauda       Coloni Motorsport    2:19.567
21.  Bruni       Durango              2:19.620
22.  Pla         DPR                  2:20.159
23.  Piccione    Durango              2:20.367
24.  Yoshimoto   BCN Competicion      2:20.436

All Timing Unofficial