Button tops first Suzuka practice
Jenson Button led a McLaren one-two as he set the pace in the opening practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Under bright sunshine on a dry track, albeit one that was slow to grip up, the Woking team dominated proceedings in the first 90 minutes, with only Red Bull’s Mark Webber looking anywhere near close to the two British drivers.
Webber ended the morning session third fastest, ahead of the two Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher – embarking on his final grand prix at Suzuka.
Rosberg’s W03 actually ground to halt out of Turn 4 in the final minutes of the session effectively bringing the session to a premature end.
Kamui Kobayashi, who had predicted impressive performance from Sauber this weekend, was sixth fastest on the resurfaced lay-out – new asphalt is down between Turn 7 and the chicane –ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Paul di Resta in the Force India.
Nico Hulkenberg and Pastor Maldonado completed the top ten.
The McLarens looked fast from the outset, or at least as soon as cars started posting serious laptimes, which was about half an hour in.
Hamilton was the first to go top with a 1m37.008s lap, and it was a while before anyone got close to that, partly it seemed due to the apparent low grip conditions.
Indeed several cars had lairy moments, not least Schumacher who ran wide at Degner and Grosjean who had a similar escapade at Spoon.
Halfway through the session and Webber, on the hard tyre, moved to the front in the Red Bull with a 1m34.740s. That after his own scary DRS-open moment through 130R.
The Australian remained fastest until the turn of the hour when Button, last of the front runners to put in a proper run, set his 1m34.507s. Shortly after that Hamilton re-emerged from the pits to go 0.233s slower, making it a McLaren one-two ahead of Webber.
With most drivers then staying on the worn hard primes for their second runs, there was little further activity on the timesheets short of Schumacher’s improvement to fifth.
Kimi Raikkonen was 13th in the fastest Lotus, two places behind world championship leader Fernando Alonso, while the reigning champion Sebastian Vettel was 17th. The the wry smile from the German as he removed his helmet post session suggested he was unconcerned that he was nearly 2s off the pace.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m34.507s 20
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m34.740s + 0.233 26
3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m34.856s + 0.349 24
4. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m35.059s + 0.552 18
5. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m35.112s + 0.615 20
6. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m35.199s + 0.692 27
7. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m35.283s + 0.776 24
8. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m35.299s + 0.792 18
9. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m35.474s + 0.967 22
10. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m35.478s + 0.971 24
11. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m35.484s + 0.977 26
12. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m35.584s + 1.077 24
13. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m35.691s + 1.184 22
14. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m35.724s + 1.217 21
15. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m36.123s + 1.616 19
16. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m36.222s + 1.715 25
17. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m36.366s + 1.859 23
18. Valterri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m36.389s + 1.882 24
19. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m37.716s + 3.209 17
20. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m38.295s + 3.788 23
21. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m38.616s + 4.109 25
22. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m39.043s + 4.536 25
23. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m39.374s + 4.867 22
24. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m39.688s + 5.181 19All Timing Unofficial
Yves Giraud Cabantous Ignazio Giunti Timo Glock Helm Glöckler Paco Godia
posted by virgivaughn @ 4:00 PM
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