Webber leads damp Singapore practice

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Championship leader Mark Webber was fastest in first practice at Singapore.

The session started on a wet track and the championship contenders avoided the first hour of running as the track dried out, waiting until the later stages to set their first flying laps.

But despite the treacherous conditions all of the 24 drivers kept their cars out of the walls.

There were a few off-track moments for some drivers, including Timo Glock and Kamui Kobayashi. But even F1 debutant Jerome d’Ambrosio stayed out of trouble in his Virgin.

Webber snatched the fastest time with his last lap of the session, demoting Michael Schumacher from the top spot. The Mercedes driver logged 24 laps in his first session at Singapore.

Adrian Sutil moved up to third late in the session ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Jaime Alguersuari.

Felipe Massa was the only driver from the top three teams to go out early in the session when the track was at its wettest. His best time of 1’57.760 was set on intermediates while most other drivers used slicks for their final runs once the track had become dry enough.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGapLaps
16Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’54.58910
23Michael SchumacherMercedes1’54.7080.11924
314Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’54.8270.23815
45Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’55.1370.54812
517Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’55.1600.57120
61Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’55.3330.74412
715Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes1’55.5100.92115
816Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’55.5230.93415
911Robert KubicaRenault1’55.6721.08311
1012Vitaly PetrovRenault1’55.9141.32520
118Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’56.0901.50112
1223Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’56.3391.75022
1322Nick HeidfeldSauber-Ferrari1’56.4581.86918
144Nico RosbergMercedes1’56.5982.0098
1519Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’56.6032.01412
169Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’56.6152.02617
1710Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’56.8402.25114
182Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’56.8842.2959
197Felipe MassaFerrari1’57.7603.17122
2024Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’59.0344.44519
2125Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’59.2754.68616
2221Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’59.7835.19423
2320Christian KlienHRT-Cosworth2’03.4248.83517
2418Fairuz FauzyLotus-Cosworth2’05.69411.10511

2010 Singapore Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    28 comments on “Webber leads damp Singapore practice”

    1. Thats suprising from d’Ambrosio. Good on him.

      1. How nice that anyone noticed his fine debut drive! He’s never driven the car before, nor the track, so only being 0.2 sec down on Glock is really impressive.

        I was happy to see Klien back, but don’t understand why Karun didn’t get his seat back. So it’s safe to say he can go and look for another team…

        1. I also think d’Ambrosio did a solid job there. I suppose Glock has been doing most of the test work though.

    2. It is still to early to gain any understanding of who is genuinely quick, but I hope Mark can stay at that end of the field.

    3. Webber half a second up on Vettel, looks promising for the Aussie. Just got to hope Seb doesn’t break his front wing ;)

      1. The real question is what will happen if Mark breaks ‘his’ will they give him Sebs…

    4. What’s with Hamilton ?

      1. Not necessarily anything wrong – he only did a few laps at the end of the session and there was a lot of traffic. McLaren were testing new wings so he might not have been pushing for lap times to get the necessary data. Ditto Ferrari.

        1. And teams often stack development programs so that drivers share duties. Whatever Hamilton ran in FP1 will probably be mirrored by Button in FP2 and vice versa. By the time FP3 comes around, the teams will have enough data for the drivers to form their own setups.

    5. Interesting to see Massa collecting data for ferrari while Alonso was sitting in the garage ! I guess from all the championship contenders , ferrari is in unique position of sending one of the drivers for a long runs in treacherous conditions.

      1. It might also have something to do with how much engine mileage each driver has left for the remaining sessions and races. If Alonso is looking squeaky they might have just decided to save them when the track was far from ideal.

        1. I’m not sure Massa is exactly in a better position…

          1. I think he is a bit better with it, as his engine did not blow up in Malaysia.

    6. Heiki in 15th? YES!!!!!!!

    7. I know this session means nothing but very happy to see MSC:). he will surely surprise everyone If he pulls out a similar result in FP2.

      1. Looked like he learnt the track pretty fast there. I hope to see some nice driving from him this weekend.

    8. Massa’s job this week is to run into Webber.

      1. He he…… u missed Ham…
        Massa’s job is to run into Ham and webber.

        IN the next race, Webber, Ham and Button.

        IN the next Vettel ll be added to this list.. :)

        Pun intended

    9. Keith I’m not sure that “but despite treacherous conditions” and the headline of “Webber leads damp Singapore practice” really go together. Then again this is Asia and anything goes. ;)

    10. Heidfeld is already matching De La Rosa’s job of being right next to Kamui on the timesheets after one practice session! Good for Nick.

      1. Consistent but not very fast. Only if you look at the fastest lap, if you look at sector times, Kobayasih did some sectors that were very impressive (optimum lap over a second in front).

        And Nick knows the track, where Kamui saw it for the first time.

        1. Nick is back in a new car with new tyres though so I expect Kamui to be ahead for the rest of the season

    11. Keith

      I will at Turn 1 Grandstands later.

      My twitter id will be @tien_yew but won’t be tweeting much. You can follow @asiaonemotoring – he tweets better!

      cheers!
      roberttty

    12. I have high hopes for Schumacher this weekend, it’s the type of track he goes well at. Schumacher was brilliant in Monaco and Montreal, and I’m sure he’ll pull out the moves in Singapore too

    13. Could we be seeing engine limit rules starting to make a difference in practice with the front runners. Mercedes team still has the advantage of fresh engines, maybe if the other teams have to be conservative they can elevate themselves.

      Go Schumy!

      1. The works Renault team have a pretty impressive advantage over the other teams as well, Kubica might have a real chance of stealing some big points from the top 5, even a race win in the closing stages of this season!

      2. I do think that was wat you saw at Ferrari with Alonso doing only a few laps.

    14. That lap time by Schumacher was something especial.

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