Practice One - Hamilton leads Vettel in Bahrain 20 Apr 2012
Practice One for this weekend’s 2012 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix got off to a relatively low-key start here in Sakhir on Friday morning, with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton shading Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel by three-tenths of a second on a track that was still very green and slippery.
Hamilton lapped in 1m 33.572s, beating Vettel’s 1m 33.877s. Third, after a soft-tyre run for Force India, was Paul di Resta on 1m 34.150s, with China winner Nico Rosberg fourth on 1m 34.249s for Mercedes from Jenson Button on 1m 34.277s in the second Mclaren.
Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m 34.344s), Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher (1m 34.483s), Red Bull’s Mark Webber (1m 34.552s), and Lotus team mates Kimi Raikkonen (1m 34.609s) and Romain Grosjean (1m 34.847s) completed the top 10.
There were few incidents; Timo Glock spun his Marussia in Turn One, while Caterham’s Heikki Kovalainen, Sauber’s Sergio Perez and Grosjean all ran wide in Turn 10.
Perez was 11th with 1m 35.024s, from Williams’ Pastor Maldonado on 1m 35.268s. Fernando Alonso in the leading Ferrari was only 13th on 1m 35.436s, with team mate Felipe Massa 15th on 1m 35.719s. Between them, third driver Valtteri Bottas again impressed in the second Williams with 1m 35.497s.
Kamui Kobayashi was 16th in the second Sauber with 1m 35.929s, leaving Jean-Eric Vergne 17th for Toro Rosso on 12m 36.195s, ahead of the Caterhams of Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov on 1m 36.330s and 1m 36.484s respectively.
Vergne’s team mate Daniel Ricciardo was 20th on 1m 36.591s, while Charles Pic shaded Glock at Marussia, 1m 37.467s to 1m 38.006s. Pedro de la Rosa was HRT’s faster runner with 1m 38.877s from Narain Karthikeyan on 1m 39.996s.
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