Practice 1: Webber strikes first in Singapore

Mark Webber showed his intent by going quickest in the opening practice session of the Singapore GP weekend

Sep.24 (YallaF1.com) The first day (or should that be night?) of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend began with a damp track which prompted the big guns (or should that be the title contenders?) waiting until the very last to strut their stuff and by the end of the 90 minutes Mark Webber’s name was top of the timing screens.

Mark Webber was fastest in the opening practice session of the Singapore GP

The Aussie only did ten laps, only a handful were done in anger of which his final flyer was enough to ensure that the Red Bull driver’s weekend starts on a high note. After all, as the hype will have it, this is the first of the five crucial races between the top five contenders and it being so close at the top any advantage, even a slight psychological edge, could reap mammoth rewards.

Webber said before practice, “You come here with the job of trying to win the race and that is what we’ll try to do.” Good way to get started.

The final minutes resembled a qualifying session with the timing screens flickering away as positions changed just about every time a driver crossed the line. And for a couple of minutes Michale Schumacher was top of the screens and looked set to end the session fastest of all, for the first time since his comeback, but alas it was not to be.

Michael Schumacher's Mercedes GP is dwarfed by the giant ferris wheel

Nevertheless the Mercedes GP driver, who has never driven around the Marina Bay Circuit, will be happy to have ended the session second quickest and best of the Mercedes brigade

As the seven times F1 world champion said prior to the start of practice, “I have always been fond of getting to know new circuits and Singapore will definitely be an exciting adventure.” With 24 laps under his belt his adventure has got off to a good start.

Force India’s Adrian Sutil flirted with the top of the timing screens for most of the session and it came as no surprise that he ended third fastest, and only a quarter of a second off Webber’s best.

Also keeping his running down to a minimum was Sebastian Vettel who was another one to wait until late on to go out, After a dozen laps he ended fourth fastest, half a second off his Red Bull team mate’s best at the top of the timing sheets.

Adrian Sutil was third quickest

Also spending most of the session among the pace setters was Jaime Alguersuari who ended fifth fastest and best of the Ferrari powered cars on a circuit, which early indications show, may well suit the Toro Rosso STR5.

Jenson Button was best of the McLaren boys, also only doing a handful of laps towards the end of the session, and finishing the session sixth fastest while his team mate Lewis Hamilton was 18th fastest with nine laps to his credit.

Vitantonio Liuzzi, who claimed earlier in the week that his Force India’s F-duct system was not as efficient as the one on his team mate’s car, was seventh fastest 0.696 seconds down on Sutil.

Sebastian Vettel exits the pitlane

Eighth fastest Sebastien Buemi ahead of the two Renault’s of Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov, who enede the session ninth and tenth respectively. Petrov having his debut at the circuit was fastest of the rookies at a venue he has never raced at.

Italaian GP winner Fernando Alonso was 11th fastest with Felipe Massa 19th on the timing sheets. Alonso did a single flying lap on hard rubber.  The Maranello boys clearly dialing themselves in to the weekend as has become their custom in the past few races.

There were a couple more “comeback kids” on the timing screens with Nick Heidfeld making a welcome return with Sauber and Christian Klien filling in for food poisoned Sakon Yamamoto with Hispania Racing.

Nick Heidfeld back in the Sauber race seat

Heidfeld ended the session 13th best, a mere 0.119 seconds off his team mate Kamui Kobayashi.

Klien was 23rd fastest, nearly nine seconds down on Webber’s best and almost four seconds off Hispania Racing team mate Bruno Senna.

Virgin Racing’s newly signed Jerome D’Ambrosio was making his F1 Friday practice debut in place of Lucas di Grassi and ended the session 21st, 0.231 seconds off his team mate Timo Glock.

Best of the Cosworth powered runners was Lotus Racing’s Heikki Kovalainen who ended the session 15th quickest, only two seconds off Webber’s best, and ahead of the Williams pair. Fairuz Fauzy was driving the first session in place of Jarno Trulli but ended the session slowest of all.

Practice 1 – Friday, 4 September 2010