2011 ABU DHABI GP: FRIDAY RESULTS

Jenson Button fastest driver on Free Practice 1

FIRST FREE PRACTICE

Jenson Button was fastest driver on first free practice session for Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, followed by Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton.Not so surprising results, but the use of experimental Pirelli soft tires will not allow to properly find out what happened in morning session.Perhaps the most interesting moments spining of Felipe Massa and a little later runway on his teammate Fernando Alonso. Ferrari continue to test items for the new season and this is probably the cause of accidents.

At the end of training Petrov went earlier in boxing, probably becouse of Renaults advanced exhaust system.The three "new" drivers on the track, 11th time for JE Vergne and R.Grosjan with 12th, 23rd time for Robert Wickens.Only driver not to set time was Barrichello due to engine problems.

Pos  Driver                Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m40.263s           21
 2.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m40.389s  + 0.126  26
 3.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes        1m40.403s  + 0.140  27
 4.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m40.755s  + 0.492  27
 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m40.801s  + 0.538  25
 6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m41.260s  + 0.997  17
 7.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1m41.340s  + 1.077  23
 8.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m42.130s  + 1.867  26
 9.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m42.151s  + 1.888  28
10.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m42.377s  + 2.114  26
11.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m42.633s  + 2.370  26
12.  Romain Grosjean       Renault                 1m42.685s  + 2.422  29
13.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                 1m43.118s  + 2.855  13
14.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth       1m43.255s  + 2.992  29
15.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes                1m43.389s  + 3.126  24
16.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari          1m44.412s  + 4.149  28
17.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari          1m44.484s  + 4.221  18
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault           1m44.565s  + 4.302  27
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault           1m44.898s  + 4.635  25
20.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth            1m46.385s  + 6.122  28
21.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth            1m46.532s  + 6.269  27
22.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth         1m48.024s  + 7.761  20
23.  Robert Wickens        Virgin-Cosworth         1m48.551s  + 8.288  23
24.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth                            3

McLaren was fastest car again!!!

SECOND FREE PRACTICE

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the second practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso both crashed.

Hamilton's time of 1:39.586 was just 0.199s quicker than his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button as neither suffered the fate of Vettel or Alonso who both spun off at turn one. Despite that, Alonso was third ahead of Felipe Massa in fourth, with the Red Bull pair of Mark Webber and Vettel fifth and sixth quickest as the top six were separated by less than 0.6s.

Vettel spun at turn one after putting two wheels on the kerb under braking and slid sideways in to the wall. The expansive runoff area meant he managed to slow the car a lot but was unable to prevent it from nestling in the barriers. The damage was minimal, with just a broken front wing, but his session was interrupted as he had to wait for the car to be returned before getting back out for the final ten minutes.

Alonso soon followed suit as he lost the rear of his car later in the same corner, and slid backwards in to the barrier. He was less fortunate than Vettel, as he damaged the rear of the car and broke the suspension, ending his running.

Pos  Driver                Team                   Time              Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m39.586s           31
 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m39.785s  + 0.199  30
 3.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m39.971s  + 0.385  20
 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m39.980s  + 0.394  34
 5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m40.104s  + 0.518  35
 6.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m40.132s  + 0.546  26
 7.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m40.553s  + 0.967  34
 8.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m40.951s  + 1.365  34
 9.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m41.021s  + 1.435  37
10.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m41.490s  + 1.904  34
11.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m41.565s  + 1.979  34
12.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.680s  + 2.094  33
13.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                1m41.947s  + 2.361  31
14.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.983s  + 2.397  34
15.  Bruno Senna           Renault                1m42.369s  + 2.783  36
16.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1m42.798s  + 3.212  35
17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth      1m42.910s  + 3.324  34
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault          1m43.562s  + 3.976  36
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault          1m44.050s  + 4.464  38
20.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m44.265s  + 4.679  41
21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth        1m45.486s  + 5.900  34
22.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth        1m46.142s  + 6.556  32
23.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth           1m46.249s  + 6.663  21
24.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth           1m46.328s  + 6.742  34