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F1: Red Bull say catch us if you can


Red Bull made a stylish bid to write their name at the very front of the Formula One form book by topping the timesheets in the first practice sessions of the European season.

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber left rivals trailing in their wake with fastest times of 1:19.965 and 1:20.175 in the faster afternoon session. In third place was Mercedes GP’s Michael Schumacher with the only other sub-1:21 lap.

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Ferrari’s local hero Fernando Alonso was fourth while the best performance mustered by McLaren came from Lewis Hamilton in fifth despite a timesheet-topping run in the first session. Jenson Button, previously second behind Hamilton, was this time stranded in ninth behind Felipe Massa.

Renault’s Robert Kubica put in a strong performance to win sixth while Nico Rosberg was seventh, in the unfamiliar position of being behind his team-mate for the second time today.

One driver who had a less than successful session was Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg who crashed his car, leading to the session being briefly red-flagged.

In the first session Hamilton and Button topped the timesheets with the former scoring a fastest lap of 1:21.134, a little over half a second ahead of his team-mate.

Narrowly beaten into third was Schumacher, suddenly looking far more threatening than he has at any point this season, thanks to a modified Mercedes that he hopes will give his flagging comeback a boost.

In fourth and fifth were the Red Bull pairing of Webber and Vettel while in sixth was Schumacher’s team-mate Nico, getting his first taste of the unaccustomed supporting role.

Kubica was sixth and Alonso represented the first of the Ferrari drivers in seventh. Massa was 12th and Force India reserve driver Paul di Resta 13th.

Practice two times

  1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull: 1:19.965
  2. Mark Webber, Red Bull: 1:20.175
  3. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP: 1:20.757
  4. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari: 1:20.819
  5. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren: 1:21.191
  6. Robert Kubica, Renault: 1:21.202
  7. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP: 1:21.271
  8. Felipe Massa, Ferrari: 1:21.302
  9. Jenson Button, McLaren: 1:21.364
  10. Adrian Sutil, Force India: 1:21.518
  11. Pedro de la Rosa, BMW Sauber: 1:21.672
  12. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India: 1:21.904
  13. Kamui Kobayashi, BMW Sauber: 1:21.931
  14. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso: 1:22.184
  15. Rubens Barrichello, Williams: 1:22.192
  16. Vitaly Petrov, Renault: 1:22.435
  17. Jaime Alguersuari: Toro Rosso: 1:22.449
  18. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams: 1:23.765
  19. Jarno Trulli, Lotus: 1:24.209
  20. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus: 1:24.894
  21. Lucas di Grassi, Virgin: 1:25.066
  22. Karun Chandhok, Hispania: 1:25.972
  23. Bruno Senna, Hispania: 1:26.152
  24. Timo Glock, Cosworth: 1:26.596

Practice one times

  1. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren: 1:21.134
  2. Jenson Button, McLaren: 1:21.672
  3. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP: 1:21.716
  4. Mark Webber, Red Bull: 1:22.011
  5. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull: 1:22.026
  6. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP: 1:22.070
  7. Robert Kubica, Renault: 1:22.202
  8. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari: 1:22.258
  9. Vitaly Petrov, Renault: 1:22.397
  10. Kamui Kobayashi, BMW Sauber: 1:22.492
  11. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso: 1:22.588
  12. Felipe Massa, Ferrari: 1:22.975
  13. Paul Di Resta, Force India: 1:23.030
  14. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso: 1:23.110
  15. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India: 1:23.284
  16. Rubens Barrichello, Williams: 1:23.312
  17. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams: 1:23.471
  18. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus: 1:25.329
  19. Jarno Trulli, Lotus: 1:26.244
  20. Timo Glock, Virgin: 1:26.340
  21. Lucas di Grassi, Virgin: 1:26.694
  22. Christian Klien, Hispania: 1:27.250
  23. Bruno Senna, Hispania: 1:27.752
  24. Pedro de la Rosa, BMW Sauber: no time

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