Webber and Vettel fastest in Singapore FP1&2 on drying then dry track
It was Red Bull all the way in both Friday practices for the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix, with Mark Webber taking the lead as the circuit finally dried out after a typical late afternoon storm put standing water on the track an hour before the first practice. It was a topsy-turvy session, as Kamui Kobayashi, Michael Schumacher, and Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock spent quite a bit of time on the top of the timesheets in the middle of the session. It was the second session that brought representative dry times, as Sebastian Vettel was the first and only driver into the 1:46s range, over a half second faster than his teammate Webber, who was second fastest, and a second or more faster than Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and the rest of the field. Alonso ended his session with twenty minutes to go when he went down an escape route (after being poised to set a very fast lap time) to avoid crashing and seemed to have stalled the car. According to Ferrari, “We need to wait until the car is brought back in the garage to understand what happened when Fernando was rejoining the track.”
FP1:
Webber took fastest away from Schumacher at the end of the first session with slick tires on the drying circuit. Schumacher had led much of a session that included still standing water in places from the typical late afternoon Singapore thunderstorm. Early in the session, Kobayashi led Schumacher and Glock, as the championship hunting teams allowed the newer and slower teams to do the work of rubbering in and clearing the track of water. The first session also invloved multiple drivers switches, with Jerome D’Ambrosio filling in as reserve driver for Lucas di Grassi at Virgin, Fairuz Fauzy in at Lotus, and Christian Klein in for the entire weekend to replace an ill Sakon Yamamoto at HRT. Nick Heidfeld had also replaced Pedro de la Rosa for, presumably, the rest of the season at Sauber. At the end of the session, in those final fifteen minutes with a pretty dry track, the running order went upside down, with some drivers falling as many as seven positions in just a few moments. Both Hamilton and Heidfeld were caught out by their early posted final lap. Surprisingly for a damp Singapore, a few drivers had only minor spins and other than the wet keeping the cars in the garage, no one severly damaged their car.
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"Final Times in FP1 for the 2010 Singapore GP:
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Driver Time Gap Laps 1. Mark Webber 1:54.589 10 2. Michael Schumacher 1:54.708 +.119 24 3. Adrian Sutil 1:54.827 +.238 15 4. Sebastian Vettel 1:55.137 +.548 12 5. Jaime Alguersuari 1:55.160 +.571 20 6. Jenson Button 1:55.333 +.744 12 7. Tonio Liuzzi 1:55.510 +.921 15 8. Sebastien Buemi 1:55.523 +.934 15 9. Robert Kubica 1:55.672 +1.083 11 10. Vitaly Petrov 1:55.914 +1.325 20 11. Fernando Alonso 1:56.090 +1.501 12 12. Kamui Kobayashi 1:56.339 +1.750 22 13. Nick Heidfeld 1:56.458 +1.869 18 14. Nico Rosberg 1:56.598 +2.009 8 15. Heikki Kovalainen 1:56.603 +2.014 12 16. Rubens Barrichello 1:56.615 +2.026 17 17. Nico Hulkenberg 1:56.840 +2.251 14 18. Lewis Hamilton 1:56.884 +2.295 9 19. Felipe Massa 1:57.760 +3.171 22 20. Timo Glock 1:59. 034 +4.445 19 21. Jerome D’Ambrosio 1:59.275034 +4.686 16 22. Bruno Senna 1:59.783 +5.194 23 23. Christian Klien 2:03.424 +8.835 17 24. Fariuz Fauzy 2:05.694 +11.105 11
FP2:
The track was still drying out as the drivers took to the street circuit in Singapore from late afternoon rain. It was mostly drier, but littered with greasy patches that had drivers spinning. Ten minutes into the session and Alguersuari led Button, Sutil, Hamilton, Kobayashi, Liuzzi, Massa, Petrov, Heidfeld, and Buemi as the fastest ten while Kubica, Vettel, Webber, Alonso, and Rosberg had yet to set any times. Soon enough, Button had moved up a position as Alguersuari drifted backwards and Alonso moved up to second after posting a quick lap time. He then took fastest from Button with a 1:49.376. Alonso improved his time, gaining over a second in lap time over Massa, who had improved to second fastest.
After one third of the session had passed, it was Vettel to the top, by nearly a second over Alonso, the first to drop into the 1:47s for the weekend, though the times would obviously drop dramatically from the first damp session as the track continued to dry out. Webber joined his teammate at the top, though seven tenths behind, as Alonso, Button, Kubica, Hulkenberg, Massa, Rosberg, Barrichello, and Liuzzi rounded out the top ten with an hour still to run. At about that time, Alonso and Massa were switching off parts in the Ferrari garage, with the team tweeting, “Now the two F10 swapped the aero configuration: Fernando will run without the rear blown wing, Felipe will have it.”
Halfway through the session and most of the drivers were in the garage, though Sutil was stopped on the circuit with a broken suspension, according to Force India on Twitter, “Adrian clips a kerb that sends him airborne, damage to suspension. He will stop on track [at Turn 18] to save further damage to the car.” Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, Webber, and Barrichello were the fastest five. Not running the f-duct/rear blown wing seemed to have given Alonso a bit more speed as he improved while others also were gaining a bit of speed. At forty-five minutes in and left, Alonso was the only driver to join Vettel in the 1:47s range. However, Button took over fastest on his first proper run on softer tires, though only by two hundredths, as Alonso also went faster than Vettel for second fastest. Vettel soon went even faster, gaining a half second over both world champions. That change at Ferrari did not seem to help Massa, who had dropped to tenth after his first run with it, leading one to presume that neither driver would run with it in for qualifying nor the race.
With thirty-five minutes to go, Vettel was busily improving his time, posting a 1:46.974 then 1:46.660 to lead Button, Alonso, Hamilton, and Barrichello as the top five. Webber, Rosberg, Kubica, Schumacher, and Massa were fifth through tenth while much farther back, Glock was working to help Virgin Racing take the title of best new team from Lotus, posting a fastest lap time more than a second quicker that Kovalainen; until Kovalainen improved his own time to bring it just three hundredths slower than Glock’s. Webber also improved, posting a time faster than Button’s to be second fastest, though still a second slower than Vettel with one half hour left. Kovalainen also soon overtook Glock in lap times.
Button improved his time and position to take third fastest from Alonso as both he and teammate Massa left the Ferrari garage on soft tires, as were most of the other drivers. Similarly, “Now both cars have a standard rear wing, not blown,” according to Ferrari. Alonso’s first sector was the fastest from anyone for the session (28.9), with a personal best in the second, and a very close scrape in the third, stopping on the circuit rather than running into the wall. He got out after stalling it and finally got a hand from the marshals to get the car out of the way. His session ended with just over twenty minutes left. As the minutes ticked down from twenty to fifteen, it appeared as though many of the front-runners were testing some heavier fuel loads, as few were improving their times and most were running a couple of seconds off their best time. Still, Webber’s best time was six tenths off his teammate’s, while Button, Alonso, and Hamilton were a second or slightly more slower than Vettel.
Ten minutes left in Friday practices and Vettel led Webber, Button, Alonso, Hamilton, Barrichello, Massa, Rosberg, Kubica, and Schumacher as the top ten. Only Massa, Kubica, Alguersuari, Buemi, and Trulli were in the garage while Alonso and Sutil’s cars were still safely ensconced by marshals on the circuit. With five minutes left only Kubica, Alguersuari, and Glock were still in the garage, but times, at least at the top, were not falling. It would remain that way though the end of the session, and Vettel would keep his fastest time and large margin over the entire field, even his teammate.
"Final Times in FP2 for the 2010 Singapore GP:
"
Driver Time Gap Laps 1. Sebastian Vettel 1:46.660 29 2. Mark Webber 1:47.287 +.627 27 3. Jenson Button 1:47.690 +1.030 28 4. Fernando Alonso 1:47.718 +1.058 20 5. Lewis Hamilton 1:47.818 +1.158 28 6. Rubens Barrichello 1:48.302 +1.642 31 7. Felipe Massa 1:48.341 +1.681 28 8. Nico Rosberg 1:48.679 +2.019 26 9. Robert Kubica 1:48.855 +2.195 15 10. Michael Schumacher 1:48.889 +2.229 31 11. Nico Hulkenberg 1:49.153 +2.493 32 12. Kamui Kobayashi 1:49.438 +2.778 30 13. Nick Heidfeld 1:49.558 +2.898 26 14. Vitaly Petrov 1:49.608 +2.948 30 15. Tonio Liuzzi 1:49.896 +3.236 28 16. Adrian Sutil 1:49.984 +3.324 11 17. Jaime Alguersuari 1:50.191 +3.531 31 18. Sebastien Buemi 1:50.896 +4.236 35 19. Heikki Kovalainen 1:51.878 +5.218 30 20. Timo Glock 1:52.150 +5.490 22 21. Lucas di Grassi 1:53.431 +6.771 25 22. Jarno Trulli 1:53.526 +6.866 27 23. Burno Senna 1:54.725 +8.065 27 24. Christian Klien 1:55.542 +8.882 25
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