Hamilton crashes out in Japanese FP1 while Vettel leads

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.

Times from FP1:

Pos.		Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1		Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’32.585		23
2		Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’32.633	0.048	23
3		Robert Kubica	Renault	1’33.129	0.544	23
4		Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1’33.639	1.054	13
5		Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1’33.643	1.058	9
6		Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1’33.677	1.092	21
7		Nico Hülkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1’33.707	1.122	24
8		Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1’33.739	1.154	20
9		Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Ferrari	1’33.791	1.206	23
10		Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’33.831	1.246	9
11		Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’33.929	1.344	25
12		Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’34.042	1.457	19
13		Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’34.169	1.584	23
14		Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1’34.271	1.686	19
15		Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1’34.373	1.788	24
16		Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1’34.379	1.794	21
17		Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’34.991	2.406	26
18		Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’35.684	3.099	22
19		Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	1’36.949	4.364	25
20		Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1’37.329	4.744	17
21		Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1’37.388	4.803	23
22		Jerome d’Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1’37.778	5.193	23
23		Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1’38.814	6.229	28
24		Sakon Yamamoto	HRT-Cosworth	1’39.443	6.858	26

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