Germany's Nico Rosberg, who has yet to transform his practice pace into anything higher than sixth place in a race this season, put Williams on top of the timesheets at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Friday. Rosberg, son of 1982 champion Keke, lapped the Sakhir circuit in a time of one minute 33.339 seconds. The German has now been quickest in seven of the 11 practice sessions this year. Renault's double world champion Fernando Alonso was second fastest in the afternoon. Current champion Lewis Hamilton had earlier shrugged off the troubles surrounding his McLaren team to clock the quickest time in the morning. The Briton lapped in 1:33.647. Only Rosberg, Alonso and Toyota's Jarno Trulli went faster in the afternoon. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, winner of the last race in China, was fourth fastest in the second session ahead of Australian teammate Mark Webber and Brawn GP's championship leader Jenson Button. BMW-Sauber had filled second and third place on a hot and overcast morning with Germany's Nick Heidfeld ahead of Poland's Robert Kubica. The top three cars in that session were all equipped with the new KERS energy recovery system, that offers drivers an extra boost of power at the push of a button, at a circuit where it is expected to be a real advantage. Only Alonso of the afternoon's top three had KERS on board. Button, who won the first two races of the season and finished third in China, is seen as a favorite to return to the top of the podium with the Brawn likely to be more competitive in the hot conditions. Mercedes-powered McLaren, which warned at the start of the season that its car was still some way off becoming a winner, has brought new developments to Bahrain in an effort to close the gap at the top. McLaren, meanwhile, has written to F1's governing body to apologize for misleading stewards and accepting wrongdoing ahead of a hearing next week that could suspend the team from the championship. McLaren has been charged with five counts of bringing the sport into disrepute and are due to appear before the FIA's world motor sport council in Paris next Wednesday.
