By Alianora La Canta
April 17 2009

Free Practise 1 at China began extremely quietly for everyone. After the usual installation laps, nothing happened to anyone for about 15 minutes. Force India didn't put in a timed lap for 45 minutes. But was it worth the wait? Judge for yourselves...

9:00am - Adrian Sutil is the first driver on track. Giancarlo Fisichella is the sixth driver out for the installation lap.

9:02am - Adrian pits after his installation lap. Giancarlo follows suit almost immediately afterwards.

9:30am - Force India are still in the pits.

9:41am - Giancarlo Fisichella leaves the pits (on softer tyres), in a cluster of three drivers. Only Adrian Sutil hasn't left the pits since his installation lap. What is going on?

9:45am - Giancarlo sets a time of 1:43.5. This slow time placed him squarely in 19th out of the 19 runners on track at that point and can be explained by his going off-track at Turn 6. He returned to the circuit with no damage on the car, but the lap was lost. 

9:46am - Adrian Sutil has left the pits (on softer tyres).

Meanwhile, Giancarlo sets a better time of 1:39.3. Although he's still 19th, he's now only 0.24 seconds off Kazuki Nakajima.

9:48am - Both Force India drivers continue to improve, Giancarlo becoming 15th and Adrian 19th.

9:50am - Despite the back end snapping, the Force Indias continue to improve. Giancarlo gets a 1:38.3 to take 14th while Adrian is now only a touch slower in 16th.

9:54am - Adrian has set 11th fastest time, a 1:38.345. That was a surprise given his low-key start to the stint, but a good time is a good time.

Meanwhile, Giancarlo's tyres have started to grain. He's done 8 laps up to this point.

9:55am - Adrian has set a purple first sector (25.5 seconds). However, he lost nearly a second in the last sector, mostly out-braking himself into Turn 14.

9:56am - Giancarlo has pitted. He's done 10 laps.

9:58am - Adrian's lappery has settled into a steady pace, indicating graining has set in. He's done 8 laps in this stint so far.

10:01am - Adrian has pitted, having completed 10 laps.

10:06am - Adrian is 13th and Giancarlo is 16th. Both remain in the pits.

10:15am - It is revealed that Adrian Sutil has the fastest speed trap sign at 312kph. He's running a low-downforce set-up with that Mercedes engine. That said, he might not have a choice. Giancarlo is 2kph slower at the speed trap in 3rd (Webber splits the Force Indias).

Meanwhile, both Force India drivers resume running. They're on hard tyres.

10:30am - No other notable developments, except that the hards are clearly too hard for this circuit. Force India are about a second slower on them than on the softer tyres.

China Practise 1: Long Wait To See Not Much

Discussion started by Force India (IP Logged), 17/04/2009 04:51

Force India
17/04/2009 04:51

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