Formula One: Sutil tops rain hit Friday practice for the German GP, Hamilton crashed out
Adrian Sutil recorded the fastest time in his Force India at the first Friday Practice Session of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheimring. The track has been under heavy rain since Thursday and it was still raining when the green lights came on. The cars that first hit the track produced huge spray on the track behind them.
Under wet conditions, the cars were lapping at around 1m 35s but soon the rain stopped. As track conditions improved, each driver started to set faster laps. Adrian Sutil, one of the best Formula One drivers in wet conditions, made the most of wet track and set the fastest lap of the 90 minute long session at 1m 25.701s in 20 laps. The German was followed by Felipe Massa, who would find some hope and encouragement following a good practice session. Felipe Massa was more than a second off the pace of Sutil’s recording 1m 25.850s.
Jenson Button was third fastest and ran 16 laps. His best time was 1m 26.936s. Jenson was excited before the session and said on Twitter, “Morning... It's absolutely bucketing down here in Hockenheim. P1 is going to be rather interesting!”
Before the practice, McLaren revealed that they were hopeful about the new upgrades and that they can challenge Red Bull for victory. McLaren still hasn’t fully optimized the new upgrades but think that the package is close to full potential and will make the car quicker. McLaren said that Red Bull’s pace advantage will be neutralized by Hockenheim’s slow corners.
McLaren faced a heartbreak moment when Lewis Hamilton, the last driver to go out and first one to come in during the practice, slipped off the track to hammer into the tyre wall. He badly damaged his front wing and right rear suspension. The first thing he said on the radio was "I'm in the wall, the car is damaged. Heavily." Lewis Hamilton just ran 8 laps and set a time of 1m 24.429s, 3.728 seconds slower than Sutil. He grabbed 17th position.
It is not clear how effective McLaren’s upgrades were because the car did not run long enough to analyze them properly. McLaren will look forward to the second session to measure the benefits of the diffusers. The mechanics will have a tough race against time to fix Hamilton’s machine before the next session which starts shortly.
Fourth fastest driver on the grid was Rubens Barrichello with 1m 26.947s followed by Renault’s Vitaly Petrov, who managed the best time of 1m 26.948s from 21 laps. Nico Rosberg in sixth was 0.05 second slower than the Renault driver. Sebastian Buemi’s STR Ferrari made it seven different manufacturers in top 7, as he recorded the best lap time of 1m 28.114s.
The second of Williams’ driver, Nico Hulkenberg, was 2.492 seconds off the pace of the leader and ran wide on many occasions during the practice. Sutil’s teammate Liuzzi was 2.6 seconds slower than him in as many laps as him. Pedro de la Rosa’s BMW completed the top ten with 1m 28.486s.
Friday practice came as a surprise to many as Red Bull’s best effort of 1m 28.735 by Sebastian Vettel earned them only 11th position along with Timo Glock, who exactly matched Vettel’s lap time in as many laps as the Red Bull driver completed.
Robert Kubica with 1m 28.903s finished ahead of Mark Webber, whose best time turned out to be 1m 29.048. Red Bull will look to improve further as they will be installing new front wings on both cars in Saturday practice.
Jarno Trulli constantly battled with his car and it looked like he was driving on ice. His 1m 29.280s was good only for 15th position. Jaime Alguersuari stayed out for the longest duration of 34 laps and recorded 1m 29.336s, while Lucas di Grassi finished 18th with 1m 29.5s.
Alonso, who is extremely hopeful about German Grand Prix and believes that the car has improved a lot since last race, did not do much in first practice and managed only 1m 29.684 out of 15 laps. The last driver to run in 1m 29s was Kobayashi.
Lotus’ test driver Fairuz Fauzy recorder 1m 30.938 and almost a second slower was Bruno Senna in 22nd position. Michael Schumacher was 6.749 seconds slower than Sutil and finished 23rd. Yamamoto was the last driver on the grid recording his best time of 1m 32.791s.
There is a lot more to come before the race and the current standings are not reflective of the race ahead. There is no rain prediction for the qualifying race and therefore things will drastically change tomorrow.
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