It has been announced today that both the Toro Rosso and Force India teams are to retain their driver line-up for the 2011 season.
Both Force India and Toro Rosso are to keep their drivers for 2011
There had been rumours around that both teams were considering driver changes, but all of that appears to have been put to one side as Sebastien Buemi, Jaime Alguersuari, Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi will continue to race for their respective teams.
This of course means that there is no space available for Paul di Resta, the highly rated test driver for Force India, and contracted to the Mercedes racing group. His only option is if there is a vacancy at Mercedes, which looks very unlikely.
Sebastian Vettel continued to extend his lead over the other drivers in Friday Practice this morning, as he set the fastest lap for the second time today in Suzuka. He was 3 tenths of a second ahead of team-mate Mark Webber.
Sebastian Vettel continued to lead FP2 today
Robert Kubica was again impressive in 3rd, although he had a high-speed spin into the gravel trap during the session, where he was lucky to keep the car going. In 4th and 5th were Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, though amazingly they were a full second slower than the Red Bulls.
Jenson Button was very close behind in 6th. Lewis Hamilton’s car was fully repaired from his crash in FP2 with 10 minutes to go, and only set 8 laps. His fastest was only enough for 13th place.
Vitaly Petrov was 7th, ahead of Michael Schumacher, Adrian Sutil, Nico Hulkenberg and Nico Rosberg. Kamui Kobayashi was 12th, after another eventful session of running wide multiple times. His team-mate Nick Heidfeld was 15th.
Vitantonio Liuzzi struggled behind the two Toro Rossos in 18th place. Heikki Kovalainen continued to be the fastest driver of the new teams in 19th, ahead of Jarno Trulli. Lucas di Grassi took back his race seat from Jerome D’Ambrosio and was 21st behind Timo Glock.
Continuing from his dominant victory last year, Sebastian Vettel lead the first practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka this morning.
Sebastian Vettel led the first practice session in Suzuka today
However, Lewis Hamilton’s weekend got off to a terrible start, after crashing into the barriers at Degner, after setting only 9 laps. He ran wide, hit the gravel, and took off most of the front left suspension. He took no further part in the session.
Jenson Button had a simiar moment near the end of the session, but kept his car on track. Despite setting twice as many laps though, Button was 12th, half a second behind Hamilton in 5th.
Up front, Vettel led with a 1.32.585, though Mark Webber was well within striking distance, only 0.05 seconds behind his team-mate. Robert Kubica was half a second behind in 3rd. Adrian Sutil was another 0.5 slower in 4th.
Lewis Hamilton's car being removed from the track
Behind this group came the two Williams drivers, Schumacher, and Nick Heidfeld in 9th, 4 tenths quicker than Kamui Kobayashi.
The Ferraris were 11th and 13th, suggesting that they would be running heavy fuel loads. Vitaly Petrov struggled in 15th, while Buemi and Alguersuari were the slowest of the established teams. The 3 new teams were quite off the pace, with Heikki Kovalainen 4.3 seconds off Vettel’s time.
Jerome D’Ambrosio, in his first practice session in a Formula 1 car, was 22nd, and only 4 tenths off Timo Glock. Bruno Senna and Sakon Yamamoto filled the back row.
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