Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso Tops Valencia European GP Practice - Formula One
Formula One circuit now moves to Valencia for the European GP, and it was only fitting that the former world champion from Spain, Fernando Alonso, was the one who set the pace in the free practice session at the Valencia circuit.
The Ferrari driver made an astonishing lap of one minute 39.283 seconds to leave the pack chasing in the distance.
The season’s two sensations, Red Bull’s duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, were close behind though, placing 2nd and 3rd in practice respectively, while Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was the 4th fastest.
The winner of the last 2 races, Lewis Hamilton from McLaren, could not continue the same pace and finished a disappointing 5th, while his teammate, the current world champion Jenson Button, could only take the 9th spot.
Alonso’s teammate, Felipe Massa, spun dramatically and the practice was stopped, and the Brazilian lost half an hour, but considering the amount of time lost he still did well to finish 7th.
Timo Glock from Virgin Racing was another driver having car issues; he lost almost 40 minutes following a mechanical problem, and Vitaly Petrov, the new kid from Renault, also saw his car spinning even before he joined the practice.
The two fastest men in the first half of the season, Vettel and Webber, were at it again in the initial phase of practice, while using the harder set of tyres, but as the teams started moving to the softer ones during the final half hour of the race, the Red Bull domination was not to be seen.
But the two time world champion Alonso was smooth as silk when making the sharp turns at the Valencia circuit, and delighted the home fans who had been disappointed by the early part of the season. Alonso had promised that the 2nd half will be a whole different story, and if the free practice session is anything to go by, Ferrari definitely have done some things right ahead of the all important race.
Ferrari had attracted a lot of attention ahead of the race, after installing a new and improved exhaust system, which is pretty much along the same lines of the one used by Red Bull.
The new exhaust is expected to increase the car velocity by at least 0.5 seconds per lap, and what was on show at Valencia in practice would have given big heart to the Ferrari fans that there might be a possible turnaround in the driver standings in the 2nd half of the season.
After the new modifications by several teams including Ferrari, experts believe that there is not much to choose from now between Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes, and that the final races of the season may throw up some big surprises.
Renault and Mercedes, meanwhile, have also made changes to their car ahead of the race. Mercedes driver Rosberg used the updated exhaust to good effect in the early part of Practice in Valencia, when he was followed by the McLaren duo of Hamilton and Button.
But While Rosberg looked much better with the modifications, his teammate Michael Schumacher could not produce the same speed, and failed to even make the top 10 (Schumacher has never raced in Valencia).
Looking down the order it is once again Force India that are the likely candidates to accumulate some points. Adrian Sutil was impressive to take eighth spot while Vitantonio Liuzzi managed 12th spot.
Rubens Barrichello was in the top 10 in both sessions, due to the updates in 'F-duct' which the Williams team has been working on to increase the straight-line speed.
With the new modifications made by the rest of teams, the Red Bull domination certainly looks to be on the decline, and the Valencia GP will go a long way towards predicting which way the world championship will be heading.
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