Saturday September 12, 2009
Force India driver is fastest in free practice for Italian GP
MONZA (Italy): German Adrian Sutil topped the times for Force India in yesterday’s second free practice session for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix.
The 26-year-old from Starnberg clocked a best time 1:23.924 to outpace nearest rival Frenchman Romain Grosjean of Renault by two-tenths of a second, confirming the team’s strong recent form.
Two-time champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso was third fastest in the other Renault on a day when the French team were at the centre of a major controversy over events at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.
The team, charged with possible race-fixing after allegedly asking former driver Brazilian Nelson Piquet to crash deliberately, issued a statement in which they said they had started legal action against Piquet and his father Nelson Piquet senior.
The scandal, unfortunately, overshadowed nearly all of the on-track action in which the usual suspects in this year’s championship battle kept a low profile.
Defending drivers world champion Briton Lewis Hamilton, who was fastest in the morning for the McLaren Mercedes team, was down in 11th but was at least assured by seeing his team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalainen clock fourth best time behind Alonso.
Championship leader Briton Jenson Button was 19th for Brawn GP, sandwiched between 18th placed rival German Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull and Italian veteran Giancarlo Fisichella, newly-installed at Ferrari, who was 20th.
Button’s Brawn team-mate Brazilian Rubens Barrichello was 16th quickest, two places behind another title contender Red Bull’s Australian Mark Webber.
These places confirmed that few of the leading men in the field were clocking lap times that were of much significance when it came to assessing what may happen in today’s qualifying session.
On another hot and dry day, the track temperature reached 38°C, high enough to give the Brawn team little excuse for extracting a good performance from their cars and tyres. — AFP
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