Friday, September 24, 2010

Practice Two: Bulls in a class of their own

Red Bull was the team to beat in Friday's second practice as Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber stormed ahead of the chasing Ferraris and McLarens

After a damp start to the day's running, Practice Two took place on an almost completely dry Marina Bay Circuit, prompting the big-name runners to do more than just a token run.

With the action underway from the moments the track was green-lighted, it was soon apparant that the battle for the P1 slot would be between Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren - the three teams still chasing this year's World titles.

However, it the end it was Red Bull who dominated with Vettel posting a 1:46.660 to beat Webber by 0.627s.

Third place went to McLaren's Jenson Button, who was a full second off the pace, while Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were next in line as the title five made up the top five on the timesheets.

Report: The track was still damp in parts and the floodlights were in full force as Friday's second practice for the Singapore GP got underway. The drivers were quick to make their mark on the timesheets with Lewis Hamilton leading the way after the opening ten minutes with a 1:51.712. However, his reign was short-lived as Jaime Alguersuari, despite literally throwing his car around the track, took the P1 slot with Jenson Button moving into second place.

Adrian Sutil moved up into second place while Felipe Massa bulked Sebastien Buemi as traffic proved to be a problem in the opening stint with 22 of the 24 drivers all out on track at the same time. Button was the next to lead the way ahead of Rubens Barrichello, Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa. The pack, though, was dropped as Fernando Alonso went quicker still as he put his F-duct to use, a 1:49.376 for the Spaniard.

Kamui Kobayashi made the first noteable mistake of the session as he ran wide. Alonso, meanwhile, just managed to avoid a mistake as he narrowly missed the concrete barriers on his way to lowering the benchmark time to a 1:48.661. Felipe Massa took second place behind his team-mate. Alguersuari finally hit the wall, something he had been threatening to do for a few laps, but somehow managed to continue, appearing to suffer no damage.

Sebastian Vettel overhauled Alonso at the top, 0.837s up on the Ferrari driver. Moments later Mark Webber took third place, splitting the two Ferraris. A few laps later and Webber was up to second place in a Red Bull 1-2. Button improved to fourth but was still almost a full second slower than Vettel. Sutil has a minor spin and moments later Kobayashi ran off the track after hitting a wet patch. Michael Schumacher's Merc GP was also put into a bit of a slide as he hit the wet. Another wack for Sutil, as he's vaulted over the kerbs, damages the front left of his Force India.

Alonso and Hamilton both moved up the order to split the Red Bulls before Button took the P1 slot, using the prime option tyres. Alonso, still on the harder
tyres, improved to second. Vettel retook the P1 slot and went on to lower the benchmark, moving a full second up his team-mate Webber. Alonso put on the softer softs for his next run, setting purple sectors before having to take to the escape road to avoid hitting the barriers. And, unfortunately for the Spaniard, he stalled his engine as he attempted to refuse and get back onto the track.

Alonso's stall was followed by a rather quiet, at least for the timesheets. Although the drivers continued to lap the circuit, none were able to improve their times. They did, however, put in a last gasp effort in the final four minutes with all the drivers, barring Alonso, Alguersuari and Timo Glock out on track.

None, though, were able to beat the Bulls with the session ended with Vettel in the P1 slot with a 1:46.660 and Webber second, 0.627s behind his team-mate. Button was third, 1.030s adrift of Vettel.

Times

01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:46.660 29 laps
02. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:47.287 + 0.627 27 laps
03. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:47.690 + 1.030 28 laps
04. Alonso Ferrari 1:47.718 + 1.058 20 laps
05. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:47.818 + 1.158 28 laps
06. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:48.302 + 1.642 31 laps
07. Massa Ferrari 1:48.341 + 1.681 28 laps
08. Rosberg Mercedes 1:48.679 + 2.019 26 laps
09. Kubica Renault 1:48.855 + 2.195 15 laps
10. Schumacher Mercedes 1:48.889 + 2.229 31 laps
11. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:49.153 + 2.493 32 laps
12. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:49.438 + 2.778 30 laps
13. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari 1:49.558 + 2.898 26 laps
14. Petrov Renault 1:49.608 + 2.948 30 laps
15. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:49.896 + 3.236 28 laps
16. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:49.984 + 3.324 11 laps
17. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:50.191 + 3.531 31 laps
18. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:50.896 + 4.236 35 laps
19. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:51.878 + 5.218 30 laps
20. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:52.150 + 5.490 22 laps
21. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:53.431 + 6.771 25 laps
22. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:53.526 + 6.866 27 laps
23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:54.725 + 8.065 27 laps
24. Klien HRT-Cosworth 1:55.542 + 8.882 25 laps


Source: Planet-F1

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