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.
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