Practice One - Webber fastest for Red Bull at Interlagos
Seven-tenths of a second separated the top six drivers after Friday morning’s first practice session at Interlagos. Mark Webber set the pace for Red Bull with 1m 13.811s, but he was only 0.014s ahead of Jenson Button, who posted 1m 13.825s, and 0.150s ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who lapped in 1m 13.961s in the second McLaren. Hamilton aborted a final effort to go quicker.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel just failed to break into the 1m 13s with 1m 14.025s, leaving the top four just 0.214s apart, while the Ferraris had a mixed day. On his 100th appearance for them, Felipe Massa was fifth on 1m 14.507s, with Fernando Alonso sixth on 1m 14.541s. The Spaniard took a long while to get going, then stopped near the end after slowing in Turn One with similar engine troubles to those he experienced in India.
There were five substitutions: Jean-Eric Vergne had another go for Toro Rosso, replacing Sebastien Buemi; Romain Grosjean stood in at Renault for Vitaly Petrov; Nico Hulkenberg was out in place of Adrian Sutil at Force India; GP2 racer Luiz Razia took Jarno Trulli’s seat at Lotus; and, finally, Czech Jan Charouz took over Tonio Liuzzi’s HRT.
A late improvement put Michael Schumacher seventh for Mercedes on 1m 15.162s, ahead of the Force Indias, with Hulkenberg managing 1m 15.178s to Paul di Resta’s 1m 15.241s. Nico Rosberg in the other Mercedes completed the top 10 with 1m 15.321s.
Jaime Alguersuari aced Vergne, the Spaniard taking 11th for Toro Rosso with 1m 15.468s as the French rookie finished 18th on 1m 16.052s, while Grosjean was 12th on 1m 15.547s as Bruno Senna’s 1m 15.732s left the Brazilian 14th. Grosjean did not complete the session, however, stopping on the pit-lane exit with mechanical problems.
In what may, or may not, be his last F1 outing, Rubens Barrichello started his Brazilian weekend by separating the Renaults with 1m 15.663s for Williams, while team mate Pastor Maldonado’s 1m 15.836s left him 16th, splitting the Saubers. Kamui Kobayashi had a spin on his way to 1m 15.747s, while Sergio Perez did 1m 15.979s.Behind Vergne, Heikki Kovalainen took his Lotus round in 1m 16.514s. Razia was at one stage within two-tenths of him in a reasonable outing, but didn’t improve beyond 1m 17.595s for 20th.
Timo Glock complained that his Virgin got slower as the session progressed and was 21st on 1m 18.140s as team mate Jerome D’Ambrosio did 1m 18.653s, which left him just clear of Daniel Ricciardo’s HRT on 1m 18.952s. Charouz showed well, taking the sister F111 round in 1m 19.577s which was respectably close to the Australian for a first timer.
Credit: Formula One Administration Ltd (www.formula1.com)
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