Saturday September 26, 2009
Championship leader Button clocks fifth fastest time
RED Bull’s Sebastian Vettel has set the fastest time in yesterday’s practice ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.
With the Red Bull cars needing to finish ahead of their Brawn GP rivals tomorrow to keep interest in the Formula One championship, Vettel set a best time of 1:48.650 at the Marina Bay circuit.
Renault driver Fernando Alonso, who won the race last year, was second fastest, ahead of McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen and Nick Heidfeld of BMW.
Championship leader Jenson Button of Brawn was fifth best, a place ahead of Red Bull driver Mark Webber, whose second practice session was curtailed by a crash into a wall.
Grounded Red Bull: Circuit crew removing the car of Mark Webber which crashed during the second free practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix yesterday. — AFP Brawn driver Rubens Barrichello was 11th.
Australia’s Webber halted practice when he crashed into the wall after setting the fastest time in the latter of two sessions.
In the first floodlit session for the night race, French rookie driver Romain Grosjean slammed his Renault into the barriers at the same place where Nelson Piquet deliberately smashed into the wall a year ago.
Red flags were waved to allow the debris to be removed before practice could resume with Webber’s team-mate Vettel clocking the second fastest time, 0.304 seconds slower than the Australian.
Brawn’s Rubens Barrichello topped the timesheets in the first session with the Brazilian clocking 1:50.179 following an amazing flashback to the inaugural 2008 race.
Renault were handed a suspended permanent ban for race-fixing earlier this week after Piquet confessed to crashing on purpose last year in a plot to help team-mate Fernando Alonso win after the safety car was deployed.
Grosjean, who replaced Brazilian Piquet in August and was passed fit yesterday morning after feeling unwell on Thursday, had completed nine laps when he crashed.
He has not previously raced at the track.
Both drivers walked away from their crashes. — Agencies
For another perspective from The Straits Times, a partner of Asia News Network, click here.
Sports Poll
- Tevez, Adebayor give Man City 2-0 win over Bolton
- Lotus vow to make it through entire season
- Chinese pair banking on flour power
- Red Devils back at full power, says Edwin
- India’s richest man denies interest in Liverpool stake
- Reds regain mean streak
- Drogba fired up to keep Chelsea ahead of United
- New car will give Force India an advantage
- Hairi wants to be better than Shu Wai
- MNCF worked up over new ruling for team sprint at 2012 Olympics
- Tevez, Adebayor give Man City 2-0 win over Bolton
- Lakers down Spurs for second win without Bryant
- More scandals, please
- India get a thrashing
- Stoke’s Fuller held over club assault
- Two men jailed over Dalglish grenade case
- India’s richest man denies interest in Liverpool stake
- Reds regain mean streak
- Chinese pair banking on flour power
- Bid to find the ultimate EPL viewing experience
RSS
