Button tops Chinese FP1 while Buemi suffers heavy crash

Jenson Button in Friday Practice 1 in China today

Jenson Button topped the first practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix. However, the event was overshadowed by a huge crash for Sebastien Buemi.

Fernando Alonso failed to set a time, as an engine failure 6 laps into his run (these were installation laps, so no time was set). Despite this, the Spaniard claims that he is not worried about the failure, despite the fact that his last engine blow was effectively 7 laps ago. He therefore ended up back of the timesheets this session.

Button’s fastest lap was a 1.36.677, which was 0.071 seconds ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes, while Lewis Hamilton was only another 0.02 seconds back. Behind them, the top ten was as follows: Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov, Mark Webber, Adrian Sutil, and Felipe Massa.

It was a very good session for Renault, with Kubica and rookie Petrov getting 6th and 7th respectively. They were one second off Button’s pace, so it looks like both drivers may end up in the points this weekend.

Jaime Alguersuari continued his good form with 11th place, with the Saubers of Kobayashi and De la Rosa behind. Paul di Resta ran the Force India car again in FP1, getting 15th place, and 1.9 seonds behind Button. The Lotus, Virgin and HRT cars filled the back rows (in that order), with only Alonso behind.

The biggest moment of the sessions was Buemi’s crash. At Turn 14, which is the heavy-braking area at the end of the 1km back straight, the suspension appeared to completely fail, blowing off the front tyres, and sending the car spinning into the gravel. The red flag went out for 10 minutes while the car and debris were removed. The session did restart, but only for another 6 minutes, before the chequered flag came out. Here is a video of what happened:

Other drivers had problems apart from Buemi. Jarno Trulli damaged his diffuser at Turn 1, while Timo Glock broke his front wing in the same place.

Full times from Friday Practice 1:

	Driver	Team	Fastest lap	Diff.	# of laps
1	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1.36.677		15
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1.36.748	0.071	17
3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1.36.775	0.098	19
4	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1.37.509	0.832	14
5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1.37.601	0.924	20
6	Robert Kubica	Renault	1.37.716	1.039	17
7	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1.37.745	1.068	25
8	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1.37.980	1.303	17
9	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1.38.008	1.331	13
10	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1.38.098	1.421	19
11	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1.38.161	1.484	19
12	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1.38.375	1.698	21
13	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari	1.38.421	1.744	19
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1.38.569	1.892	20
15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1.38.618	1.941	26
16	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1.38.678	2.001	17
17	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1.39.939	3.262	5
18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1.41.531	4.854	22
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	1.41.779	5.102	23
20	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1.41.830	5.153	20
21	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1.42.181	5.504	27
22	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1.43.875	7.198	23
23	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	1.43.949	7.272	20
24	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari			6

	Driver	Team	Fastest lap	Difference	# of laps
1	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1.36.677		15
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1.36.748	0.071	17
3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1.36.775	0.098	19
4	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1.37.509	0.832	14
5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1.37.601	0.924	20
6	Robert Kubica	Renault	1.37.716	1.039	17
7	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1.37.745	1.068	25
8	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1.37.980	1.303	17
9	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1.38.008	1.331	13
10	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1.38.098	1.421	19
11	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1.38.161	1.484	19
12	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1.38.375	1.698	21
13	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari	1.38.421	1.744	19
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1.38.569	1.892	20
15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1.38.618	1.941	26
16	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1.38.678	2.001	17
17	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1.39.939	3.262	5
18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1.41.531	4.854	22
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	1.41.779	5.102	23
20	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1.41.830	5.153	20
21	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1.42.181	5.504	27
22	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1.43.875	7.198	23
23	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	1.43.949	7.272	20
24	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari			6