Rookie F1

Free Practice 1

• Ferrari: The flames on Alonso’s birthday cake have had an effect on his car, when he returned to the garage fire extinguishers were deployed on the back of his car. Massa is getting to grips with a new front wing. Alonso gets into his rhythm with an hour to go and gets the hammer down, beating his own top of the table times.
• Force India: Hulkenberg is in for Sutil for the session, and sets the first time.
• Hispania: Ricciardo is behind Liuzzi again, but is within a second.
• Lotus: Trulli is reportedly happier with his steering.
• McLaren: The team are trying out aero parts, a new exhaust and test components for Spa. Hamilton had a huge lock up at the end of the session and left a huge flat spot on his front right.
• Mercedes: Rosberg nurses the car around, not looking particularly confident with the car. Schumacher and his race engineer have a little disagreement regarding rear diff.
• Red Bull: Vettel is wearing a bandage on his right hand, but it’s a precautionary measure only. Webber has a couple of lock ups around the track over several laps as he gets to grips with the track. Webber leaves the track at turn 9 and loses his front wing and wrecks his front right suspension and connect tyre with 15 mins to go.
• Renault: Reserve driver Senna is having an outing in Heidfeld’s car this morning, he ends the morning in 15th and just over a second off in his first non-straightline test outing.
• Sauber: It’s revealed that that Kobayashi grandstand at Suzuka has been extended from 3000 to 10,000 seats, and it’s sold out for the second year in a row. And of course there is more cause for celebration as both drivers have been signed for 2012.
• Toro-Rosso: Alguersuari kept Hamilton hanging on his gearbox during the last sector of a lap. Buemi spent a brief time as the fastest driver.
• Williams: Barrichello’s not happy with the rear end of the car, he’s running with KERS this weekend. Maldonado’s struggling with front grip and tells his team so. The team also have a complete copy of the Red Bull’s engine cover on this weekend.
• Virgin: Glock heads d’Ambrosio but around half a second.
  

Top FP1 times:

Read: Full FP1 Results

Free Practice 2:

• Ferrari: Massa has complained to his team about the high level of traffic on the circuit and runs wide at turn 12 later on after losing the rear end. When Massa gets out on the options he sets the fastest first sector, but has to back out of the lap when he goes wide at turn 9. Alonso gets on the options and bashes out a hugely fast lap.
• Force India: Hulkenberg is out of his borrowed car and Sutil gets back on the track.
• Hispania: Ricciardo spends some time ahead of Liuzzi in the middle of the session, and later on ahead of Glock and d’Ambrosio, but in the end settles ahead of Liuzzi.
• Lotus: Trulli seems more at ease with his steering as he spends some time ahead of his oft faster team mate Kovalainen. Kovalainen had some issues with his gears, but the team are happy to be a tenth behind Toro Rosso.
• McLaren: Hamilton is caught out by a bump in the track on the start/finish straight and locks up into turn 1. Both drivers are reporting that there is less grip in this ession than the morning. But it doesn’t seem to be hindering them, their first sector times are great and Hamilton gets ahead on the options. Later on in the session Hamilton’s lap times are very up and down, even dipping into 1:30.
• Mercedes: Schumacher’s rear tyres going away dramatically compared to the team ahead of the team.
• Red Bull: Webber’s car is fixed and on track for the afternoon session. Webber is running the new fron wing in this session, since Vettel has been running the new version he’s been outqualified. Vettel and Webber produced some consistent laps at the end of the sessions showing good race pace.
• Renault: Heidfeld has taken his car back from Senna. Petrov is having problems with his brakes, rear wing and unstable rear and so goes back to FP1 settings.
• Sauber: Both drivers were closely matched throughout the session and sit in the middle of the table.
• Toro-Rosso: Alguersuari is the first driver out on the options and sets the first time.
• Williams: Barrichello overtook a dawdling d’Ambrosio in the pit lane entry, but is also complaining of rear understeer. What could be the cause is the new rear wing he’s trying out. Maldonado has a slow puncture in his rear left tyre. A switch to options for the pair improves their times, but they fight to find the grip.
• Virgin: Retained their usual spot between Lotus and Hispania.
  

Top FP2 times:

Read: Full FP2 Results