Free Practice 2
McLaren’s Jenson Button topped the second practice session for this year’s Australian Grand Prix.
The 2009 World Champion ran a best lap of 1:25.854 during a 32 lap run, pipping teammate Lewis Hamilton by just over one-tenth in a session that retained the overcast conditions of the morning. Hamilton registered 31 tours of Albert Park, alleviating some of the fears about the reliability of the MP4-26.
Fernando Alonso lined up 3rd in his Ferrari ahead of the Red Bull pairing of Sebastian Vettel (4th) and Mark Webber (5th), although both Red Bull’s appeared to concentrate on race simulations during the afternoon.
Michael Schumacher (6th) bettered his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg (10th) by eight-tenths, as they squeezed Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Sergio Perez (Sauber) and Rubens Barrichello (Williams), as they finished 7th to 9th respectively.
Indeed Sauber had quite a good afternoon, as they proved to be the busiest on track – between Perez and Kamui Kobayashi, the Swiss team notched up 74 laps in the ninety minute session.
The same could not be said for Hispania Racing. The Spanish squad were only able to manage a single installation lap for Vitantonio Liuzzi – they will be hoping they can run solidly during tomorrow’s third practice session. At Lotus, a fuel pressure problem for Jarno Trulli and a engine misfire for Heikki Kovalainen caused both to lose track time, but both returned to circuit for the last 45 minutes.
There were several excursions during the session – the most notable offs came from Massa, both Williams, both Lotus’, Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso), Vitaly Petrov (Renault) and Timo Glock (Virgin).
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m25.854s 32 2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m25.986s + 0.132 31 3. Alonso Ferrari 1m26.001s + 0.147 28 4. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m26.014s + 0.160 35 5. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m26.283s + 0.429 33 6. Schumacher Mercedes 1m26.590s + 0.736 31 7. Massa Ferrari 1m26.789s + 0.935 34 8. Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m27.101s + 1.247 39 9. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m27.280s + 1.426 34 10. Rosberg Mercedes 1m27.448s + 1.594 23 11. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m27.525s + 1.671 31 12. Petrov Renault 1m27.528s + 1.674 29 13. Heidfeld Renault 1m27.536s + 1.682 22 14. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m27.697s + 1.843 30 15. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m28.095s + 2.241 35 16. di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m28.376s + 2.522 33 17. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m28.583s + 2.729 31 18. Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m29.386s + 3.532 29 19. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m30.829s + 4.975 22 20. Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m30.912s + 5.058 23 21. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m32.106s + 6.252 36 22. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m32.135s + 6.281 30 23. Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth No time 1
Blimey that was a quick report. Good stuff 🙂
Do we think McLaren were sandbagging after all?
Maybe a little, but the car they had today was an upgraded version with new exhausts – I believe they have just found an improvement; however Red Bull were on race sims, while everyone else seemed to be on shorter runs.
The Red Bull’s are very, very safe here from what I can see.