Practice One - Webber edges out Schumacher 24 Sep 2010
Practice got underway on a still-wet Marina Bay circuit on Friday evening in Singapore and for a long time the order had an unusual look as BMW Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi set the initial pace after displacing Mercedes GP’s Michael Schumacher and Virgin’s Timo Glock.
Dusk had fallen the better part of an hour through the 90 minute session when the big guns came out, and soon the times tumbled as conditions improved.
In the end it was Red Bull’s Mark Webber whose last lap ousted an improved Schumacher from first place, the Australian’s 1m 54.589s lap acing the German’s 1m 54.708s by 0.119s. Right behind them Adrian Sutil was again quick for Force India, pushing his VJM03 round in 1m 54.827s.
Behind them came Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, whose 1m 55.137s had earlier supplanted Jenson Button from the top slot, the Englishman taking his McLaren round in 1m 55.333s. Jamie Alguersuari subsequently squeezed his Toro Rosso between them, with 1m 55.160s for fifth place. Tonio Liuzzi chased them in the second Force India, with 1m 55.510s to pip Sebastian Buemi in the second Toro Rosso on 1m 55.523s, and the top 10 was completed by the Renaults of Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov on 1m 55.672s and 1m 55.914s.
Ferrari went back to their former habit of doing mainly race set-up work, so Fernando Alonso’s 11th fastest 1m 56.090s lap need not be regarded as definitive, then came Kobayashi on 1m 56.339s from newly returned Nick Heidfeld on 1m 56.458s in the second BMW Sauber. Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg focused on race set-up work too, for 1m 56.598s, which left him ahead of Heikki Kovalainen who looked very good for Lotus en route to 1m 56.603s. The Williams duo have yet to show their hand, Rubens Barrichello taking 16th with 1m 56.615s from team mate Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 56.840s.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton didn’t do much running and was only 18th on 1m 56.884s, just ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa whose 1m 57.760s was at one stage second fastest before conditions improved.
Behind these two aces there was a gap to Timo Glock’s 1m 59.034s, while Belgian Jerome d’Ambrosio impressed on his first run in an F1 car with 1m 59.275s in the other Virgin. Bruno Senna’s was the faster HRT on 1m 59.783s for HRT, with new team mate Christian Klien taking over from an unwell Sakon Yamamoto to lap in only 2m 03.424s, having failed to get out as the track dried out. At the back, Fairuz Fauzy had another go in the Lotus, taking Jarno Trulli’s car round in 2m 05.694s.
It was an almost completely uneventful session, with only Schumacher, Senna, Glock and Kobayashi having minor off-track moments.
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