Sebastian Vettel tops Friday’s Practice Sessions at Suzuka
The Red Bulls finished on top on Friday, leading the way in both practice sessions at Suzuka. It now seems that Red Bull is looking stronger than ever as compared to its rivals as both its drivers topped their respective time sheets with outstanding lap
times. Sebastian Vettel was the fastest driver on the track, followed by his teammate Mark Webber in second place.
Surprisingly, Renault’s Robert Kubica followed the two which was quite an astonishing result for the Polish driver as he timed quicker than both Ferrari drivers. It seems that Renault has some tricks up its sleeves for this weekend however, the Ferraris
were just a couple of tenths slower than the Renault with one more practice session remaining that is set to take place on Saturday.
The McLarens had a disappointing Friday as Lewis Hamilton crashed in the first session directing the team’s attention towards the repairing of his car rather than the big tests that McLaren was expected to run. Lewis Hamilton was just able to score 8 laps
during the second practice session as a result and this is not a good sign for the British driver. McLaren was not happy with its performance as Jenson Button finished behind the two Ferraris at 6th place. The team did not get to test its new rear
wing as extensively as they wanted.
Fernando Alonso was faster than his teammate but the Ferraris clearly could not match the RB6 of the Red Bull Racing. The Renaults looked strong as Vitaly Petrov finished behind Jenson Button at 7th place. Lewis Hamilton however, finished at the
13th place and that was quite disappointment as he was not able to make much modifications and upgrades to his car as compared to his teammate. The team will now have to work hard if they want to score some good points this weekend. McLaren is already
in a very risky position and if they do not score some good points, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton will have to go through a lot of trouble in order to achieve their championship goals for this year.
Mercedes and Force India did well as compared to the Sauber drivers as Nick Heidfeld disappointed on the day. He was outperformed by his teammate once again and it seems that Kamui Kobayashi is doing a great job for the team.
However, the top three teams are marginally separated and according to the results on Friday, it is not going to be easy for McLaren to recover before the race this Sunday.
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