Japan Grand Prix – Friday Practice Results

| Source: autosport.com | lotusf1team.com |

 

Sebastian Vettel beat Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber to top spot in an incident-strewn second Formula 1 practice session at Suzuka.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso both had moments at the Degners – the latter doing well to save a spin without damage – while Kimi Raikkonen, Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado all suffered early exits after accidents.

Perez’s off was the most dramatic: the Mexican clipped the Astroturf on the entry to Spoon with his McLaren’s rear right and was pitched sideways into a heavy collision with the barriers.

Williams driver Maldonado also hit the tyres – this time at Degner, just 12 minutes into the session – while Raikkonen lost the rear of his Lotus and ended up beached in the gravel at Dunlop 30 minutes from the session’s end.

The Finn still ended the session fourth fastest, as the field collectively switched to long runs for the final third of the afternoon.

FP2 Times:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car              Time       Gap      Laps
 1.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault      1m33.852s           35
 2.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault      1m34.020s  +0.168s  35
 3.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes              1m34.114s  +0.262s  36
 4.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault         1m34.202s  +0.350s  17
 5.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault         1m34.411s  +0.559s  30
 6.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes              1m34.442s  +0.590s  36
 7.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m34.473s  +0.621s  30
 8.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari               1m34.698s  +0.846s  35
 9.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes      1m34.912s  +1.060s  34
10.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari               1m35.087s  +1.235s  32
11.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari        1m35.089s  +1.237s  36
12.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m35.109s  +1.257s  34
13.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari        1m35.182s  +1.330s  34
14.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes  1m35.275s  +1.423s  35
15.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  1m35.341s  +1.489s  25
16.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes      1m35.709s  +1.857s  8
17.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault      1m36.136s  +2.284s  41
18.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault      1m36.722s  +2.870s  6
19.  Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault      1m37.630s  +3.778s  31
20.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault      1m37.905s  +4.053s  36
21.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth     1m38.121s  +4.269s  33

Lotus Team Quotes:

Kimi Raikkonen – 8th/4th: “The car felt pretty good today. Of course, there are some areas we can improve but I’m quite happy with the progress we made. I spun in FP2 so we did miss some of the long run laps we would have got this afternoon. I was on a fast run and the wind changed, which can affect the car sometimes. At least we didn’t do any damage so the crew won’t have any extra work. It’s not a big drama as we know the track pretty well. We have a few changes for tomorrow so let’s see what happens.”

Romain Grosjean – 7th/5th: “Finding the right balance to get the car working well around here is quite tricky and the tyres are not making that any easier, so we’ve got some work to do overnight to make it a little easier to handle. There’s definitely some more performance to be found, and it’s always better to be near the top of the times even if you’ve not got things quite right, so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We have struggled a bit for consistency today, with both drivers having off-track excursions. Romain in particular experienced brake locking, which is something we can counter with some mapping work. We lost a reasonable amount of long run data collection as a result of Kimi’s spin, meaning Romain’s programme was modified slightly and we might look at doing some race simulation work during tomorrow’s practice. On the softer tyre we look competitive and I think we can expect to qualify well. Our long run pace also looks good so it’s an encouraging start to the weekend.”

FP1 Times: FP1 Report

A quiet FP1 for Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean in Japan, with plenty of running and valuable data collection. Some hefty incidents on track, but the Lotus F1 Team boys managed to keep it clean. Here’s how it went…

Pos Driver                Team                  Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m34.157s          19
 2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m34.487s  +0.330s 19
 3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m34.768s  +0.611s 24
 4. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m34.787s  +0.630s 20
 5. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m35.126s  +0.969s 14
 6. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m35.154s  +0.997s 16
 7. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m35.179s  +1.022s 15
 8. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m35.364s  +1.207s 17
 9. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      1m35.450s  +1.293s 27
10. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m35.635s  +1.478s 19
11. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m35.868s  +1.711s 22
12. Nico Hülkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari        1m35.900s  +1.743s 18
13. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m36.066s  +1.909s 20
14. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m36.165s  +2.008s 19
15. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m36.178s  +2.021s 12
16. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1m36.340s  +2.183s 23
17. Paul Di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m36.399s  +2.242s 18
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1m36.760s  +2.603s 22
19. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m37.595s  +3.438s 22
20. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth     1m37.629s  +3.472s  8
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault      1m38.025s  +3.868s 15
22. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth     1m38.763s  +4.606s 18