Formula One: Practice session at Silverstone
The RB6 of Red Bull has proved its potential once again as Vettel topped Friday’s qualifying session of the British Grand Prix. At Silverstone he pushed Red Bull to the front making his lap in only 1m 32.280s. Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, who had already won the race of 2008 on this track, was able to finish in just 1m 32.614s. Vettel, who was able to impress everyone once again, is also the winner of two races previously this year, one of which was only two weeks back in Valencia, Spain.
The next man who had sparkled on the track Friday morning was Robert Kubica for Renault who had been able to set the third fastest lap in only 1m 32.725s. The man following him was Mark Webber, the other driver of Red Bull Racing, making his fastest lap in 1m 32.747s. One man who took all off the hook was Adrian Sutil of Force India as he surprised everyone with his pace as well as aggression on the track making his lap in only 1m 32.968s.
The Mercedes’ driver Nico Rosberg, who had not been able to do very good in last month’s race, gave a satisfactory run finishing sixth on 1m 33.318s, ahead of the Williams’ driver Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 33.377s. It was a good finish for Hulkenberg, though they are expecting even better in the rest of the race days as they are using their updated Williams for Silverstone. Jenson Button, the other McLaren man who has his home race and is thought to be very promising finished his lap in 1m 33.519s which had also been installed with various upgraded technologies for this race.
Michael Schumacher, driving for Mercedes, who has not had many good moments all this season finished at ninth place in 1m 35.955s. This race is very important for him as half of the season has already gone since the seven times world Champion has returned to the track and still he had not been able to get any remarkable finishes. He has also been the victim of very severe criticism since the past two months for his poor driving.
The tenth place was occupied by Rubens Barrichello after finishing best in 1m 34.016s for Williams, one place ahead of Sebastien Buemi for Toro Rosso who finished in 1m 34.132s. The Russian driver for Renault, Vitaly Petrov had his finest in 1m 34.365s.
One of the surprising finishes of the season was given by the two Ferrari drivers. As Fernando Alonso was able to end in thirteenth place with 1m 34.490s and teammate Felipe Massa ended at seventeenth place on 1m 35.037s.
The middle gaps were filled by Paul di Resta of Force India in 1m 34.580s, and Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa both driving for BMW Saubers, in 1m 34.710s and 1m 34.901s successively.
The eighteenth place was occupied by Jaime Alguersuari, one place behind Massa, lapping in 1m 35.318s for his Toro Rosso. He was followed by the new teams of the season as Heikki Kovalainen of Lotus who finished in 1m 36.747s whereas Timo Glock for Virgin ended this morning in 1m 37.330s for twentieth place one place before his teammate Lucas di Grassi who finished in 1m 37.518s.
The Indian man, Karun Chandhok driving for HRT ended in 1m 38.735s, where as the other HRT man Sakon Yamamoto in 39.673s sandwiching Fauruz Fauzy of Lotus in between who covered in 1m 39.510s.
Over all, some of the results of the first qualifying had been expected though there had been a few much unexpected times. Whatever, the hottest teams of the season, Red Bull and McLaren had been able to do well as predicted while Ferrari did not perform much like what was expected from it.
Well, a few more practice session to go and the final race day would unfold the much anticipated race of the season, this Sunday at the British Grand Prix.
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