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On a day with
clear sunny skies the AT&T Williams F1 team would prepare for the first
Friday practice session for the 2011 Indian Grand Prix. Hard and soft
compounds were the tyres from Pirelli for this event, with the softer rubber
being designated as the 'prime' tyre, allowing each driver to use more soft
tyres during today's practice sessions. Pirelli had brought an extra set of
the soft tyres just for the Friday practice. The ninety minute session would
commence with the Force India of Sutil first out onto the track. He was
followed by Chandhok and Di Resta in the second Force India. The HRT of
Karthikeyan was also out on the track followed by several other drivers. Pastor Maldonado would be the
first of the Williams cars out on the track for his installation lap. The
drivers would pit as we had Alonso take to the track.
Senna, Petrov, Glock, Trulli, and Schumacher would also come out, joined by
the second Williams of Rubens Barrichello. Pastor would pit as we had
Chandhok set the first time with a 1m:52.148. Trulli was running a special
helmet in memory of MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli. Rubens would also pit as
the session was red flagged with a dog out on the track. This was not the
first time that a dog had come onto the track. The track was now empty with
the only drivers yet to come out were Vettel and Button. Button would be
first out as the session was restarted. Alguersuari was next out but both
would pit as Buemi was next out. He would pit leaving the track empty.
Vettel was next out followed by Rosberg. Vettel would pit after a slow lap
while Karthikeyan returned to the track. Rosberg would also pit while next
out was Hamilton and Ricciardo. Hamilton would pit while Karthikeyan would
set a 1m:45.906. Schumacher and Kobayashi were next out as Karthikeyan set
an improved time with a 1m:42.310.
Ricciardo set a 1m:43.177 to be second as Rosberg took to the track.
Schumacher would go fastest with a 1m:38.658 while Ricciardo improved to be
second with a 1m:39.835. Karthikeyan also improved with a 1m:39.789 to be
second. Schumacher also improved with a 1m:35.275. Ricciardo was again second with Karthikeyan
third. Rosberg was now fourth, 1m:39.797. Pastor would take to the track
with an hour remaining in the session. Glock would join him as Schumacher
set a 1m:34.635. Kobayashi was now third, 1m:39.284, while Rosberg would move into second with a 1m:37.116.
Schumacher would pit as Alguersuari moved into third, 1m:37.402. But
Kobayashi would move ahead with a 1m:37.388. Pastor was now sixth,
1m:37.838, as Alguersuari went fastest with a
1m:34.314. Rosberg would go fastest with a 1m:34.002, as the times continued
to fall. Pastor would improve with a 1m:35.439 to be fourth. on the softer
tyre Alguersuari was again fastest with a 1m:32.911. Kobayashi was now
fourth, 1m:34.982, while more drivers took to the track. Alguersuari would
improve with a 1m:31.904 as Pastor moved into third, 1m:34.345.
Rosberg and Schumacher had both pitted while we now had both Button and
Webber out on the track. Both Renault cars were also out as Buemi moved into
second, 1m:33.861. Pastor was now fourth followed by Sutil, Schumacher,
Kobayashi, Webber, Di Resta, and Chandhok in tenth. Pastor was now in second with a time of 1m:33.428 but
Buemi would move ahead with a 1m:32.651 to be second. Button was up to
eighth but this would become ninth as Webber moved into fifth, 1m:34.322. Di
Resta set a 1m:33.341 to be fourth. Sutil was now fifth, 1m:33.670, but he
would drop down to fifth as Button went fastest with a 1m:30.794. Rubens was
now out on the track for his first run while we also had Vettel and Trulli
also leave the pit lane. Pastor had pitted with forty five minutes remaining
as Buemi went second with a 1m:30.871. Vettel would have a moment taking to
the grass but we would continue. Button would improve with a 1m:29.694,
running on the soft tyre. Schumacher was back out and now second with a
1m:30.800. Massa was now out on the soft tyre, as Webber moved into second,
1m:30.643.
Schumacher was now third from Buemi, Alguersuari, Di Resta, Sutil, Pastor,
Rosberg, and Vettel in tenth. Rubens was down in nineteenth with a lap time
of 1m:39.137. Button would pit as Schumacher went fastest with a 1m:29.353.
Massa's first effort would see him eighth, 1m:32.529. Schumacher also found
extra time setting a 1m:28.656. Massa's next lap was a 1m:30.106 to be
third. But Webber would move back ahead of the Ferrari with a 1m:30.070.
Rubens was now up to thirteenth with a 1m:34.381. Massa was on the soft tyre
while Rosberg also found time with a 1m:31.725 to be eighth. Vettel was
tenth with a 1m:32.055. Pastor had dropped to eleventh and still in his pit.
Ricciardo was in fifteenth, 1m:34.968, while for McLaren Hamilton had yet to
set a time. There was thirty seven minutes remaining Massa was now second,
1m:29.473, while Rosberg was up to fifth, 1m:30.483. Of those setting times
on the hard tyre it was Webber in fourth. Pastor was again out on the track
running on the soft tyre while Rubens would improve to be eleventh,
1m:32.131. Hamilton was now twelfth, 1m:32.205, while for Ferrari Alonso had
pulled off the track climbing out of his car ending his session as Rosberg
moved up to third, 1m:29.580.
Button was also back out on the track while for Williams Pastor would
improve to be tenth with a 1m:31.611. Rubens was currently in twelfth and he
would return to his garage. Using his soft tyres to good effect Hamilton
would improve to be second with a 1m:29.227. Pastor had gone off track
seeing him complete a slow lap but he would continue improving to be eighth,
1m:30.669, only to have Alguersuari take this spot. Button was again fastest
with a 1m:28.5901 as Webber returned to the track. Petrov was now seventh,
1m:30.392 with Sutil now eighth. Pastor was now tenth while Vettel was only
eleventh. Hamilton would go fastest with a time of 1m:27.515, to be ahead of Button by 0.879. Vettel had also
improved to be fourth, 1m:28.802. He was also on the soft tyre while
team-mate Webber was now sixth. Vettel's next lap would see him improve to
be second with a lap of 1m:28.316. The lap times continued to fall as Buemi
moved into fifth but Webber would set a 1m:28.203 to be second, running on
the soft tyre. Both Webber and Vettel would lower there times with Webber
setting a 1m:27.671 and Vettel a 1m:27.854.
Button had pitted and was now fourth followed by Schumacher, Buemi, Sutil,
Massa, Rosberg, and Di Resta in tenth. Pastor had pitted, currently in
fourteenth, while Rubens was back out currently in seventeenth. Rubens would
improve his time, 1m:31.255, but remained in seventeenth. Sutil was now sixth as Webber went fastest with
a 1m:27.428. Vettel would move ahead of Webber with a 1m:27.416, making it a
Red Bull one-two. Hamilton was third and Button fourth. Vettel would pit
while Rubens would move up to thirteenth with a 1m:30.367. Pastor was back
out on the track, currently in sixteenth. Massa would move from eighth up to
sixth with a time of 1m:28.644. Kobayashi was now in thirteenth while Rubens
would pit. Alonso's car was back in the pit lane allowing the Ferrari
mechanics to start work on the car. Hamilton and Button were both back out
with ten minutes remaining. Kobayashi also found time moving up to ninth,
1m:29.355. Hamilton would improve his best to a 1m:27.446, just fractions
off the Red Bull pace. Alguersuari would have a spin at Turn nine leaving
the track and ending up going into the barrier backwards ending his session.
Both Pastor and Rubens were back out but it would go wrong for Pastor with
either a gearbox or engine failure seeing him pull off the track. With the
amount of smoke coming from the car it was most likely an engine failure.
The track was now very busy with only three drivers still in their pits, one being Alonso. As the final
minutes counted down all the cars would take to the track with several
drivers on improved laps. Hamilton had gone fastest in sector one as the
session came to an end. His last lap would see Hamilton go fastest with a
1m:26.836. Vettel was second followed by Webber, Button, Schumacher,
Rosberg, Massa, Sutil, Buemi, and Kobayashi in tenth. For Williams Rubens
would finish in fifteenth and Pastor seventeenth. It was confirmed that the
engine that had failed in Pastor's car was an older one. It is very early
days for the Williams team as they try to come to grips with the Buddh International Circuit. As the track improves it will be
a case of whether or not the Williams team can also find that extra pace to
pull them closer to the front.
In late news it
was confirmed that both Hamilton and Perez had been given three place grid
penalties for not slowing sufficiently when passing double waved yellow
flags near the end of the session. |
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