Rookie F1

Free Practice 1

• Ferrari: Pat Fry seems to be making an impact, both drivers are posting great times. Alonso particularly kept the Red Bulls at bay with some blistering times.
• Force India: Hulkenberg is in for di Resta and they’re running an upgraded rear wing. Sutil and Hulkenberg have a very handy session as they both end up inside the top 10.
• Hispania: Karthikeyan is in for Liuzzi. The team have also changes their sidepod design, instead of the ‘This could be you’ paintjob to entice possible sponsors, they’ve got their preferred name instead, ‘HRT F1’.
• Lotus: Chandhok replaces Trulli for the whole weekend having only completed 7 timed laps. His time out on track was interrupted by a mirror falling out. Kovalainen took too much speed into turn 5 and ends up in the gravel, but holds it well and gets it back onto the track in one piece.
• McLaren: Button left his garage with plenty of flo-vis paint over the rear wing and diffuser section. Hamilton spends some time at the top before the Red Bulls emerge from their garages. Button new rear wing increases DRS efficiency but he loses some  rear downforce as a result. Hamilton has the old version, and both have aero parts on the mirrors to clean up the air going towards the rear.
• Mercedes: Rosberg is able to get into the mix with the leaders early in the session. Schumacher’s rear went away from him under braking into turn 1, and going through the gravel at the hairpin he finds time to wave at the fans.
• Red Bull: Vettel and Webber spend the morning switching places with each other at the sharp end of the table.
• Renault: Heidfeld will be getting used to new rear facing exhaust, but Petrov won’t be as he’s apparently too heavy. Heidfeld gets back to the pits and the exhaust area is so hot some of the stickers are peeling off, as a result they’ve had to alter the sidepods.
• Sauber: Perez is another driver having a locking issue going into turn 1.
• Toro-Rosso: Alguersuari seems to have had a massive boost from his recent point scoring races and spends the morning ahead of Buemi. Buemi launches himself into the air and beaches the car in the gravel, his rear right touched the dirt at turn 5, he gets out of the car and is fine.
• Williams: New rear wing for both, and Barrichello is trying out the new front wing.
• Virgin: Glock’s rally moment over the kerbs at the 13/14 chicane may have damaged the front wing.
  

Top FP1 times:

Read: Full FP1 Results

Free Practice 2:

• Ferrari: Out early and both are at the sharp end. Massa is experiencing understeer, but it doesn’t hamper him as he goes quickest with a gap of over 0.5 seconds. Then of course Alonso picks up the pace and responds to reclaim the top spot.
• Force India: Successful data collecting session for them regarding their new upgrades this morning. Sutil does a little drifting around the chicane but no damage is reported on the car.
• Hispania: Ricciardo pulls over at turn 6 with a plume of smoke leaving the rear of his car,
• Lotus: Chandhok is still getting used to the braking, finding Trulli’s set up prone to locking. Kovalainen reports that he’s feeling vibration through his brakes.
• McLaren: Are running updates to their floor and a new rear wing. Hamilton is suffering from understeer and asks for more front end. Button suffers a mechanical issue, which turns out to be a new exhaust failure and with not enough time to fit the old one his sessions finishes early.
• Mercedes: Rosberg lost his telemetry early on in the session, but the team decide to leave him out there to make the most of the running time, good choice as it soon returns. Schumacher is exhibiting his vast knowledge of the track and sneaks close to the top.
• Red Bull: Webber picks up a lot of extra time in the middle sector. Being a Friday we can’t read too much into it but Vettel was off the pace and pulling up on hot laps.
• Renault: Heidfeld’s car is having it’s anti-roll bar linkages worked on, not the exhaust. Petrov’s had his leaky radiator changed.
• Sauber: Perez is ahead of Kobyashi again, and Perez has seemingly escaped a penalty for leaving the pitlane early.
• Toro-Rosso: Buemi’s car is still being worked on after his time in the gravel in FP1, he session ends early as he reports that his car is misfiring at the top end of the revs.
• Williams: Sam Michael joins the BBC commentary team for part of the session. Maldonado has a big lock up on his front left coming into the final chicane.
• Virgin: Glock obviously feeling left out has his own rally moment at the hairpin.
  

Top FP2 times:

Read: Full FP2 Results