Jenson Button sets pace in FP1 of 2012 Japanese Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
McLaren driver Jenson Button has topped the timesheets in the dry first free Friday practice session of 2012 Japanese Grand Prix held at Suzuka.
Button set the best time of 1 minute and 34.507 seconds and completed 20 laps. Moreover, it will be interesting to mention that the British driver was the fastest driver in all the practice sessions of the Japanese GP during the preceding season and was
the race winner also.
The 2009 world champion was followed by his teammate, Lewis Hamilton who set the second best time of 1 minute and 34.740 seconds.
Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing came 3rd in the timesheets and remained ahead of Nico Rosberg of Mercedes who was further followed by his teammate, Michael Schumacher.
The seven-time world champion stayed ahead of Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber who was followed by Felipe Massa of Ferrari. Furthermore, the Brazilian driver remained ahead of Force India pair of drivers, Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg.
Pastor Maldonado of Williams came 10th in the timesheets and was followed by Massa’s teammate, Fernando Alonso who is presently leading the drivers’ championship with a strong lead over his main rivals.
The Spaniard stayed ahead of Sergio Perez of Sauber who was further followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus who seemed a little uncomfortable behind the wheel of his car.
The Finnish driver was followed his teammate, Romain Grosjean who remained ahead of Toro Rosso drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.
Vergne stayed ahead of Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull who came 17th in the timesheets and was followed by Lotus reserve driver, Valtteri Bottas.
Bottas was followed by Timo Glock of Marussia who remained ahead of Vitaly Petrov of Caterham. Besides, Petrov stayed ahead of Glock’s teammate, Charles Pic who was further followed by Narain Karthikeyan of HRT.
Almost all the drivers successfully managed to get the essential information regarding their update packages which will be used for making further advancement by the teams. Additionally, all the contenders used the hard Pirelli compound tyres in FP1 and
it will be interesting to see how they show up with soft tyres in the second session.
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