
- News:
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Grosjean ready to take 'gambles'
- News:
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Track conditions blur pecking order - Alonso
- News:
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Raikkonen cautious on Lotus progress
- News:
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Button worried by McLaren pace
- Race:
- Indian Grand Prix
- Drivers:
- Fernando Alonso
- |
- Sebastian Vettel
- |
- Mark Webber
Sebastian Vettel was again quickest in practice for the Indian Grand Prix as Red Bull dominated the second session.
Vettel's time of 1:26.221 was 0.118s clear of team-mate Mark Webber, but he was over half a second clear of Fernando Alonso and only six drivers could get within a second of the best time. Nico Rosberg was an encouraging fourth for Mercedes - albeit 0.801s slower than Vettel - ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and both McLarens.
Long runs at the end of the session told a different story, however, with the frontrunners looking much more closely matched and Lewis Hamilton was told by his team that he was "the fastest car on high fuel" with a few minutes left in the session. Nevertheless, Vettel's final lap on his long run was also very competitive suggesting he is not only quick but also very capable of looking after his tyres.
The session was littered with spins, the majority of which were performed by Ferrari's Felipe Massa. Massa was first to spin at turn 11, and was then followed in quick succession by Romain Grosjean at turn 10 and Bruno Senna at turn three. Massa then spun again at turn seven when running on soft tyres and complained of a "problem" with the car.
The Ferrari driver managed to burn flatspots into his tyres, which ruined his soft compounds and made his hard compounds fairly useless. Nevertheless, he returned to the track for a final run to try to gather whatever useful data he could for his team and Alonso.
Nico Hulkenberg showed decent pace in his Force India despite a spin at turn eight. He looks set to face competition from Bruno Senna and Sergio Perez for a place in the top ten in qualifying on Saturday while Michael Schumacher was two seconds off the pace in 13th.
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
