Mclaren’s Lewis Hamilton was fastest in this afternoon’s free practice session. The reigning World Champion’s time was enough to better Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel by just under two tenths of a session. Meanwhile Jenson Button continued his solid start to the weekend in third.
After a light shower at the start of the session, resulting in Giancarlo Fisichella’s Force India crashing out at turn 11, the teams were able to run a near normal program which allowed the drivers to become more accustomed to the super soft tyres, ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying session.
However the dark clouds continued to hang over the circuit for the majority of the session, giving a brief reminder of what might lie in store for the remainder of the weekend.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:32.149 23 2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:32.331 + 0.182 31 3. Button Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:32.369 + 0.220 32 4. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:32.480 + 0.331 28 5. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:32.511 + 0.362 32 6. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:32.585 + 0.436 32 7. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:32.664 + 0.515 26 8. Alonso Renault (B) 1:32.774 + 0.625 24 9. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:32.872 + 0.723 32 10. Piquet Renault (B) 1:32.992 + 0.843 29 11. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:33.012 + 0.863 36 12. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:33.052 + 0.903 34 13. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:33.128 + 0.979 34 14. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:33.161 + 1.012 28 15. Glock Toyota (B) 1:33.172 + 1.023 34 16. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:33.182 + 1.033 29 17. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:33.724 + 1.575 27 18. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:33.903 + 1.754 30 19. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:34.025 + 1.876 30 20. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:38.877 + 6.728 3
