Buzzin F1 – Formula One Blog

Lewis Hamilton

McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, topped the time-sheets in today’s free practice session followed by Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel in second and Jenson Button in the Brawn GP car in third.

The teams and drivers were faced with showers before the start of the 90 minute session but it stayed dry as practice got underway.

Under dark skies in the morning free practice session, it was the Australian Mark Webber in the Red Bull Racing car that led the pack at the Nurburgring.  Jenson Button was Webber’s closest rival followed by the Ferrari of Felipe Massa, who this week confirmed he is to become a papa.

Sebastian Vettel picked-up the pace with only a third of the session left to run, claiming second behind his team-mate, when his RB5 stopped at turn two.  After returning the car to the pits, the team got the fault repaired and sent the German driver back on track before the end of the session, but he could only manage eighth place.

Force India driver Adrian Sutil, was another turn two casualty while running in third position, unfortunately the car appeared to have suffered an hydraulics problem and could not be finished before the end of the morning session, leaving Sutil at the back in 20th place.

Rubens Barrichello in the Ferrari, was another driver with problems and spent a lengthy stay in the pits, joining the session late and finishing in 12th spot.

After a brief spell of rain at the beginning of the second session of practice, Hamilton was on a charge and shot to the top of the leaders board after a last minute tyre change to the softer option.  The McLaren Mercedes is featuring a new revised package for this weekends race including a new front wing and diffuser.

Giancarlo Fisichella in the Force India, was caught out by the early shower in the afternoon session after only completing three laps before spinning the VJM02 at turn 10 and smashing into the barriers.

The times started to pick-up on the drying track as the rubber went down and Button looked back on form as he took the top spot for a short time.

Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren, is without the latest parts to his car this weekend, and finished in seventeenth in the second session.  Towards the end of the practice, the Finn was on a fast lap until he locked his brakes-up going into the chicane, sending him across the grass.

Here are the combined times for today’s practice sessions;

1. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes 1m 32.149s
2. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1m 32.331s
3. Jenson Button Britain Brawn-Mercedes 1m 32.369s
4. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1m 32.480s
5. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota-Toyota 1m 32.511s
6. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 1m 32.585s
7. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Brawn-Mercedes 1m 32.664s
8. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault-Renault 1m 32.774s
9. Kazuki Nakajima Japan Williams-Toyota 1m 32.872s
10. Nelson Piquet Jr Brazil Renault-Renault 1m 32.992s
11. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW Sauber 1m 33.012s
12. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 33.052s
13. Nico Rosberg Germany Williams-Toyota 1m 33.128s
14. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber 1m 33.161s
15. Timo Glock Germany Toyota-Toyota 1m 33.172s
16. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 33.182s
17. Heikki Kovalainen Finland McLaren-Mercedes 1m 33.724s
18. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Force India-Mercedes 1m 33.839s*
19. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 33.903s
20. Sebastien Bourdais France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 34.025s

all times unofficial