Consistent Second Session for Brawn GP in Singapore

After a very encouraging first practice, the second session was another step in the right direction for a Brawn team hoping to step further into the lead this weekend.

I think the only other thing to say at this stage was what a pleasure it was to have Jackie Stewart commentating for the BBC. With intelligent and interesting comments coming out of him every time he opened his mouth, it only made me wish that the Beeb would kick out Legard and stick someone like Stewart in the box!

Heidfeld was the first man out and set the first time of 1:57:379. Jenson’s first time was around seven minutes in and was a 1:55:148, which put him P8 of 10 runners. Over the next few minutes Jens fell down the rankings, but a 1:51:447 stuck him back up in P4.

Meanwhile, Ruben’s first time of 1:54:924 put the main title challenger in P18 (Heidfeld was still first).

The Brazilian’s second run was only good enough for P13, but on his third try, he occupied P4 (Jens had dropped to P10, 19 minutes in).

A very encouraging 1:50:346 helped Rubens climb even higher to P3. In fact, the only man keeping the Brawns off the top of the sheets was Mark Webber with a brilliant 1:49:317.

With 30 minutes gone, Rubens was in P3 and Jens was down in P14. The Brit’s car was in the garage and there was a hive of activity around his front wing. Jens had been strong early on in this second session but he had definitely dropped off the pace and with only 10 laps completed, I was a little worried.

We got our second red flag of the day when poor old Webber made a mistake going into the final corner and shunted into the barriers. This happened with 56 minutes left and at this stage, the Australian was first with Rubens at P3 and Jens in P15.

Rosberg re-opened proceedings 10 minutes later (testimony to the excellent race marshals who also only took 10 minutes in the first session).

Jenson and Rubens were amongst the first few cars to come out quickly after the re-start and whatever those mechanics were doing to Jens' car, it worked!

Jenson sped right up to P3 with a 1:49:400! He soon went one better with a 1:49:311 P2 lap.

With 30 minutes left, Heidfeld was in P1, Jens was P3, and Rubens was down in P11, suffering with traffic problems.

When Rubens did get some clear air, he managed to pull out a 1:49:616, which got him up to P6.

Both Brawns then went on to put in consistently fast laps and though neither car got any higher and in fact ended up P5 (Jens) and P11 (Rubes), Singapore’s second practice session had been a fantastic one for BGP.

Having set brilliant pace in first practice, the Brawn team was able to evaluate lengthy runs and stay very much in the top half of the grid despite carrying pretty heavy fuel loads.

Traffic will be the main issue in qualifying, but hopefully an experienced team such as Brawn will be able to plan around that. Great stuff for we Brawn followers and hopefully a marker of things to come this weekend.

Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps

1 15 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:48.650 31

2 7 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:48.924 0.274 27

3 2 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:48.952 0.302 30

4 6 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:49.098 0.448 31

5 22 Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes 1:49.311 0.661 34

6 14 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:49.317 0.667 14

7 16 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:49.333 0.683 33

8 10 Timo Glock Toyota 1:49.342 0.692 30

9 1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:49.358 0.708 28

10 5 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1:49.609 0.959 24

11 23 Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 1:49.616 0.966 30

12 20 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:49.710 1.060 31

13 9 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:49.795 1.145 29

14 4 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:49.941 1.291 29

15 17 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:50.023 1.373 34

16 3 Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari 1:50.253 1.603 31

17 12 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 1:50.527 1.877 29

18 21 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:50.605 1.955 28

19 8 Romain Grosjean Renault 1:50.972 2.322 17

20 11 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 1:51.423 2.773 31