Welcome back to ESPNF1's commentary on Friday practice at Istanbul Park. We had an action packed morning with Vettel spinning into the barriers and the second session is just ten minutes away. |
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It's stopped raining so we might see a dry line emerge towards the end of this 90 minute session. In the morning the drivers were restricted to using full-wet and intermediate tyres and the two McLarens did just three laps between them because there was so little to gain by venturing out. |
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In fact we might see a dry line at the start of this session. The track looks a lot drier now than it was this morning and the sun is just poking out from behind the clouds. |
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Button and Hamilton are in their cars and look eager to get out on track quickly in this session. Meanwhile, Alonso, who set the fastest time of the morning, is talking to his engineers at the back of the Ferrari garage. |
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Air temperature is still a chilly 14C with track temperature hovering around 19C. |
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D'Ambrosio and Alguersuari lead the cars out of the pits as the green light comes on. They are on the hard dry tyres and the first images of the track suggest it is pretty much bone dry. |
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Vettel is enjoying a chat with Christian Horner while his team works on his car. There was a fair amount to repair after his accident. |
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Buemi has completed a timed lap and gone fastest with a 1:33.022. Hamilton and Alonso are now on track and starting their first proper laps of the session. |
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Hamilton uses his DRS down the back straight and through turn 11 where the activation zone will start on Sunday. |
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Buemi has now improved to a 1:30.801 but Massa and Hamilton are now promising to go quicker as their tyres come up to temperature. |
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Rakesh points out: "During Practice 1, it was the first time ever that two Indians, viz Karthikeyan and Chandok, were simultaneously on the F1 grid!" |
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Hamilton is already pushing pretty hard and locks up into turn 12. He goes fastest of all with a 1:29.030. |
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There are still some damp patches in the final three corners but it doesn't appear to be slowing the drivers too much and should dry out completely before we see the first soft tyres runs later today. |
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All the drivers bar Vettel and Maldonado have gone out on track. Both of those had accidents in the first session. |
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Kobayashi gets a little bit sideways trying to pass Schumacher into turn nine. The track is still pretty slippy as no rubber has been put down ahead of this session. There was a GP2 practice session but that also took place in the wet. |
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Slow motion footage of Button shows the front of his car bucking up and down over the bumps under braking. It looks as though a bit of his car has come off as well, possibly one of the stays for the front wing. |
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If something did come off Button's car it certainly isn't slowing him down as he sets the fastest time yet with a 1:28.222. |
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The McLarens are currently a full second clear of Barrichello in third, although it's still early in the session. We should see much quicker laps from Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes and Renault pretty soon, although Vettel is still in the garage in his coat watching the action on the video screens. |
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Rosberg is dragging the floor of his car around the circuit as he negotiates Istanbul Park's bumps. Plenty of dust and sparks coming from the back of that Mercedes. It was a quick lap though, and he's gone fastest with a 1:28.215. |
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Button's car has been checked over and apparently there was no damage to the wings. The piece of debris we saw on the track must have come from another car. |
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Petrov is on a quick lap and looks as if he is pushing pretty hard. He goes fourth fastest and is now 0.257 off Rosberg. We could see the updated Renaults and Mercedes closer to the front runners this weekend. |
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Tenault tweets: "DRS is expected to have the greatest impact of any of the races so far this season." |
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Schumacher is now quickest with a 1:28.165. |
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Alonso is in the pits with a problem. Ferrari says: "The mechanics are checking something on the hydraulic system on Fernando's car" |
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Maldonado is being strapped into his Williams for his first lap since his accident at the end of FP1. We're still waiting on Vettel. |
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Button is back out on track. He and Hamilton are making up for the lack of laps this morning with 20 between them so far. |
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The McLaren is still bucking a lot over the bumpy braking zone for turn 12 and it actually just caught Hamilton out as he locked up and went straight into the run-off area. |
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Massa is looking very quick in the first two sectors but made a mistake in sector three on his last lap. He's currently sixth fastest but can go quicker. |
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Maldonado has a huge slide in turn eight and just keeps the car out of the barriers. He ended up on the grass but did well not to keep some control over the rear of the car and stopped it from completely letting go. |
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Feel free to send any questions or observations you have about the session via the link at the top of this window. |
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Petrov is now quickest with a 1:27.517 ahead of Schumacher who has just set the second fastest time. |
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Vettel's Red Bull is still in the garage and I think it's safe to say we haven't seen Webber on a representative fuel load yet. |
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Rosberg has set a new fastest time with a 1:27.352. |
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Rakesh asks: "Is KERS safe to use in wet weather? I remember marshals were reluctant to put out fire when KERS was charged up, as they might receive an electric shock." As long as it is functioning correctly KERS is safe to use in any conditions and the drivers were using it this morning. There were cases of electric shocks when it was first used back in 2009 but there have been no reported incidents this year. |
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Rosberg has now improved to a 1:26.961 and is still using the harder tyres. |
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Werner says: "I wonder if we'll see a Turkish GP next year. I side with the Turkish side with regards to the costs. I don't understand how it came to be that the organisers have to pay such massive amounts. I mean they are the guys with the circuits. Without them there would be no race, no spectators and no money. Bernie's greed is going to ruin this for the fans." It's a good point but at the moment the demand from circuits around the world to host a race is greater than the supply of 20 races F1 has every year. As long as that continues to be the case Ecclestone can get away with upping the price. It would be a great shame to lose this race as it is one of the best circuits on the calendar. |
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Alonso loses the rear of his car in turn six and stops on track. He used KERS on the apex of the corner and lost the rear. He has now stopped in the pit lane entrance so it could be a wider problem with the Ferrari which was struggling with its hydraulics earlier in this session. |
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Meanwhile, we can report that Webber is using KERS and is now second fastest. He's 0.188 off Rosberg's best at the top of the timing screens. |
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Hamilton is out on track with the soft tyres and goes second fastest 0.072 behind Rosberg on hards. |
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Schumacher is now out on the softs but he too is off the pace of Rosberg so far on this lap. |
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Schumacher goes third fastest but was blocked slightly by a Williams in the final sector. |
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Button is now on a soft tyre lap and is faster than Rosberg through the first sector but not by much. |
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Button finishes that lap 0.5 seconds up on Rosberg. That is closer to the kind of pace we expected from the softs. |
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Ninad says: "It appears that the updates made by Mercedes and Renault are working, seeing that they appear to be quite fast. But practice, as you guys say is not indicative of race pace. Hope the HRT's manage to get closer to the other backmarkers, hope to see Narain Karthikeyan do well." |
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Now it's Rosberg's turn on the soft tyres... |
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Alonso is back on track after he stopped in the pit lane entrance about ten minutes ago. It looks like the Ferrari's problem is fixed. |
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Rosberg lost a bundle of time to Button in the final sector and finished his lap 0.065 off the McLaren. |
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Button's best is currently a 1:26.456, which is likely to be his fastest of the day now that he has returned to the pits. The teams tend to fuel their cars up after one quick lap in FP2 so they can simulate race fuel with the soft tyres. |
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Webber is on track now for a soft tyre run. Vettel is still in the pits with just 22 minutes remaining in this session. |
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Alonso is also on soft tyres but has yet to attempt a really fast lap. He's backed off on a number of occasions and has now settled into what looks like a longer run. |
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Anmol asks: "Can you please tell us if any of the Ferraris have done any runs on the softer tires yet ? And the updates that they have brought to Turkey, do they seem to be working ?" Both drivers have been out on softs but Ferrari usually saves its best for Saturday. Alonso has also had a few problems so I wouldn't read too much into the times. Alonso expects the updates to be worth 0.2 seconds over a lap, which isn't massively impressive after a three week break. |
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It's starting to look as though Vettel will play no part in this session. He is in the garage in a hooded jumper and jacket with just 15 minutes remaining. |
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A lot of the cars are now on track as they attempt longer runs on the soft tyres. |
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Werner says: "Oh please let it be true that RedBull's KERS issues are solved! Especially for Webber. He's had such a bad start to the year. I think he's due some good luck." He was defintely using it today but did say yesterday that Red Bull is not out of the woods yet with KERS. |
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Maldonado has spun off again. He ran wide on the exit of turn eight, caught the slide but over corrected and went into the barriers. It wasn't a massive impact but it took off the front wing. |
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Schumacher has also gone off in turn 11 while being overtaken by a Force India on the inside. He appeared to notice the other car late and then corrected his line, pitching him into a spin. No damage to the car and he has got back to the pits, but that is not a place where you would usually see a car spin. |
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Button is still the fastest with five minutes remaining. That time looks safe as all the drivers have now put several laps on their soft tyres and there is no sign of Vettel. |
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Alonso is back on the hard tyres - possibly the super hard Pirelli development tyres being run here. He passes a slowe moving Renault but is clearly on a longer runwith a 1:32.239 on that last lap. |
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Barrichello has a KERS water leak and will not play any further part in this session. |
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Schumacher has just been passed by d'Ambrosio's Virgin on track and it didn't look like he was keen to concede position, although they were on different tyre compounds. |
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All the cars bar Vettel and Barrichello are on track for one last run before the chequered flag. |
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The session comes to an end but nobody is on a quick lap so Button's time is safe. |
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So, McLaren and Mercedes lead the way at the end of Friday practice. But don't be fooled, Red Bull should be in the mix tomorrow and we haven't seen a time from Vettel due to that accident this morning. |
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Make sure you keep checking the site this afternoon for all the reaction from the drivers to the first two practice sessions. |