Practice 1: Webber makes strong start
Date published : 16 Oct 2009 - 15:42:43
Mark Webber ensured Red Bull got its Brazilian Grand Prix weekend off to the required strong start by setting the pace in a rain-disrupted opening practice session on Friday.The Australian is desperate to enjoy a competitive weekend after experiencing five successive point-less races and, after being among the initial pacesetters before a rain shower and later red flag caused long delays, returned to set the best time of 1m12.463s in the closing stages.Local favourite and title contender Rubens Barrichello got the most important home grand prix of his 17-year career off to a strong start by setting the second quickest time, the Brazilian sneaking ahead of the second RBR driver and fellow title contender Sebastian Vettel.Points leader Jenson Button meanwhile who can clinch the title with a third place finish this weekend was several places further back from his two rivals in seventh, although a trouble-free start was just what the doctor ordered for the Brawn man.McLaren and its KERS-equipped MP4-24 is expected to again be a front-running threat and Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton appeared to confirm that potential by setting the fourth and fifth fastest times respectively.Williams also made a promising start to the season s penultimate round with Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg sandwiching Button in sixth and eighth. Despite a heavily disjointed 90-minute session, most drivers still managed to complete well over 20 laps as they began to set their cars up for the undulating Interlagos challenge.Unsurprisingly the rookie Toro Rosso drivers were out early to get a first look at the 2.6-mile track, with Sebastien Buemi immediately the quicker of the two and not taking long to lap in the low 1m14s.2007 race winner Kimi Raikkonen then went fractionally ahead with an early 1m14.201s in his Ferrari, before the first rain of the weekend appeared after 14 minutes.Initially it was only dizzily so the cars therefore continued to stream out onto the circuit to try and make the most of the time before conditions inevitably worsened.Webber moved to the front for the first time after lapping in 1m13.951s, before Hamilton took control with three successive quickest laps.Although on his first run he locked up his brakes at the first corner and then had several other slip-sliding moments around the lap, the world champion still went 0.3s quicker than Webber before eventually settling on a 1m13.187s two laps later.Barrichello then briefly moved ahead, before Vettel just got in the first lap under 1m13s (1m12.932s) before the heavens opened and sent drivers scampering back to their garages.After playing a 20-minute waiting game, Toro Rosso s Jaime Alguersuari ventured out onto the slippery surface on intermediate tyres but quickly ducked back into the pits to rejoin the rest of the field as they waited for a drier line to appear.Ten minutes later Kovalainen became the first to test the track s suitability for dry tyres and the Finn was careful to ease himself back in gently, his first hot lap three seconds off the early pace set by Vettel.Romain Grosjean was the other driver out on slicks at this time, but the Renault rookie who had already had an off-track moment at turn four earlier in the session got out of shape at turn 11 and smashed through a polystyrene marker border, scattering debris across the circuit. The incident brought out the red flag and, after a 10-minute delay, drivers finally had a chance to complete some serious running.It nevertheless took another six minutes before anyone could beat Vettel s earlier benchmark, with Webber eventually moving ahead of his team-mate with on a 1m12.805s.While Vettel failed to respond, Webber continued to find more speed to push an impressive 0.469s clear of the sister car before Barrichello split them.The veteran Brazilian was one of several drivers to get caught out in the still slippery conditions in the closing stages, losing the back end of his BGP 001 under braking for the turn 10 hairpin.Turn eight was proving tricky for Adrian Sutil in particular meanwhile, the German having two wild moments there the first of which saw him expertly apply an opposite-lock slide when a spin looked on the cards.The Force India driver nevertheless finished the session in an encouraging ninth position, with Raikkonen proving 0.005s faster than Toyota's Jarno Trulli to make the top 10.Early pacesetter Buemi finished 13th despite ending the session in the barriers after sliding off the road at turn eight, the Swiss youngster doing significant damage to the right-rear wheel area of his STR4.Renault showed little speed in the disjointed session with Fernando Alonso 16th the Spaniard having a late excursion across the grass at the Senna esses and Grosjean slowest of all.Brazilian Grand Prix free practice session one 1. WEBBER Red Bull 1m12.463s 2. BARRICHELLO Brawn 1m12.874s3. VETTEL Red Bull 1m12.932s4. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m12.989s5. HAMILTON McLaren 1m13.048s6. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m13.067s7. BUTTON Brawn 1m13.141s8. ROSBERG Williams 1m13.147s9. SUTIL Force India 1m13.232s10. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m13.321s11. TRULLI Toyota 1m13.326s12. HEIDFELD BMW 1m13.464s13. BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m13.503s14. KUBICA BMW 1m13.563s15. FISICHELLA Ferrari 1m13.619s16. ALONSO Renault 1m13.787s17. LIUZZI Force India 1m13.829s18. KOBAYASHI Toyota 1m14.029s19. ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m14.040s20. GROSJEAN Renault 1m14.173s
