Greater Noida: It was a typically action-packed opening day at the spanking new Buddh International Circuit on Friday... with a quintessential Indian touch: roaring machines, screeching tyres, cars spinning out of control and dogs running on the track.
F1 Qualifying Process
In the end, though, the Prancing Horse stole the show, galloping to the fastest time as teams and drivers warmed up for Saturday's qualification and Sunday's race in the Airtel Indian Grand Prix. True to form, McLaren-Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton clocked the fastest time in the first session but also got bumped down by three places for a flag violation.
Ferrari stole the show in the second Free Practice Session with Felipe Massa averaging 215.270 kph; he set the fastest lap time of 1 min 25.706 seconds too to outpace the 2011 champion and star attraction Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull by 0.088 seconds.
Massa's teammate Fernando Alonso set the third quickest time of 1 min 25.930 which indicates that Ferrari might well dictate the pace here; he, incidentally, sat out the First Practice Session due to an engine problem.
"It's always nice to be at the top at the end of a hard day's work. It is however realistic as Friday's results are often relative. I would love to move through the weekend at the same position but it can be difficult to achieve," Massa told the media on Friday.
"The track here looks very interesting; there are corners here where driving skills can make a big difference." Vettel was second in both practice sessions on a day which kicked off with Team Lotus' reserve driver Karun Chandhok setting the first lapped time on the track. The first car out of the pitlane though was Adrian Sutil's Sahara Force India, followed by Chandhok and HRT's Narain Karthikeyan.
Chandhok, who will not take any further part in the race, with his team opting for the experienced duo of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, outpaced the Marussia Virgin Racing as well as the HRT cars with a best lap time of 1 min 32.487. "It was great to go around the track on my home GP. I could have gone even faster but yellow flags came out on my last lap. I could have improved by a second. The emotions were running high in the morning but once I crossed the garage they were all behind me," Chandhok said.
For Karthikeyan, though, it was a matter of getting used to conditions here after doing just the First Practice Session in the last couple of races. "I think the car was driving me in the first session but I managed to start driving by the afternoon session. It is going to be a challenging circuit as we saw a few cars spinning out on Turn 5," Karthikeyan said. Red flags came out in the First Practice Session, with a dog straying on to the track in the main pitlane straight - one of the longest in F1. Hamilton set the fastest time of 1 min 26.836 here but race stewards ruled that he and Sauber's Sergio Perez ignored double yellow flag warnings.
Free Practice (2nd Session):
1. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1 minute, 25.706 seconds;
2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1:25.794;
3. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1:25.930;
4. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1:26.454;
5. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:26.500;
6. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:26.714;
7. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 1:27.316;
8. Bruno Senna, Renault, 1:27.498;
9. Paul di Resta, Force India, 1:27.853;
10. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:27.868.
Selected: 21. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes, 1:31.804; 24. Narain Karthikeyan, Hispania, 1:32.824
TOI