Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel tops Friday practice sessions of Chinese Grand Prix – Formula 1
Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel was yet again on top of the time sheets in the Friday practice session of the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix.
The reigning world champion clocked the quickest time in the first session and continued his dominant form in P2 with a lap time of 1 minute and 37.688 seconds. However, he did not have a bigger gap compared to his rivals on this occasion like he had in
the morning session.
Compared to Vettel, his teammate Mark Webber had a poor session. The Australian was good in P1 when he clocked the second fastest time, but failed to make an impression in the second session. He ended up being the 10th fastest overall.
Although McLaren failed to match Red Bull yet again, the British team had a consistent run in both the practice sessions on Friday.
Lewis Hamilton closed the gap on Vettel and clocked the second fastest time. His teammate Jenson Button was also not far behind and finished third in the session. The Vodafone sponsored team has brought some upgrades to its floor and exhaust system, which
seem to work well for them so far.
The fourth and fifth fastest cars in the second practice session were both Mercedes. Nico Rosberg had a very good session for the German team and remained on top of the time sheets until the last few minutes. His teammate Michael Schumacher was also in better
shape compared to the first practice session, clocking the fifth fastest time. Both drivers will be hoping to carry this form to the qualifiers on Saturday as they have not been consistent in the 2011 season so far.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa had a consistent day and he finished sixth position in both P1 and P2. However, his teammate Fernando Alonso struggled to put a good lap time. The Spaniard lost a lot of time in the session due to a hydraulic problem and was unable
to improve on his 14th position after coming out in the last 10 minutes of the session.
Renault drivers Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov had a decent outing, as they finished eighth and ninth respectively. Apart from them, Force India’s Adrian Sutil had a better session and he finished seventh overall.
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