It’s not unusual to see Sebastian Vettel off the top spot in the first practice session, only for him to go on and set the pace through the rest of the weekend.
But Toro Rosso’s pace in the first session at Suzuka looks encouraging for the team. Sixth is the highest a they’ve been in first practice all year, and of late they’ve tended to be considerably lower than that.
Here’s all the data from the first practice session at Suzuka.
Longest stint comparison
This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
Sebastian Vettel | 97.639 | 102.001 | 104.601 | 94.742 | 101.207 | 94.375 | ||
Mark Webber | 100.273 | 99.257 | 99.729 | 99.951 | 99.826 | 104.863 | 115.614 | |
Lewis Hamilton | 96.11 | 99.546 | 94.427 | 99.843 | 93.725 | |||
Jenson Button | 94.042 | 94.466 | 94.248 | 102.054 | 93.634 | 124.191 | ||
Fernando Alonso | 105.154 | 99.109 | 96.04 | 100.795 | 94.781 | 94.757 | ||
Felipe Massa | 104.821 | 96.759 | 105.904 | 95.585 | 96.106 | 97.02 | ||
Michael Schumacher | 96.961 | 97.146 | 97.118 | 107.775 | 97.166 | 97.63 | 104.568 | 120.763 |
Nico Rosberg | 99.865 | 99.171 | 98.197 | 112.275 | 99.942 | |||
Bruno Senna | 100.491 | 101.671 | 99.144 | 98.544 | ||||
Vitaly Petrov | 97.009 | 100.026 | 96.654 | 96.912 | 96.885 | 101.901 | 138.496 | |
Rubens Barrichello | 103.031 | 114.106 | 103.216 | 117.855 | 98.331 | |||
Pastor Maldonado | 100.775 | 99.848 | 120.536 | 100.843 | 98.446 | |||
Nico Hulkenberg | 97.579 | 101.669 | 97.453 | 105.374 | 99.324 | 127.864 | ||
Paul di Resta | 97.905 | 97.917 | 105.851 | 97.983 | 103.791 | 127.393 | ||
Kamui Kobayashi | 100.509 | 100.082 | 97.951 | 105.226 | 96.948 | |||
Sergio Perez | 101.435 | 107.393 | 101.612 | 99.048 | 106.326 | 98.262 | 108.947 | 97.429 |
Sebastien Buemi | 96.354 | 95.902 | 95.667 | 95.725 | 95.711 | 95.724 | 95.59 | |
Jaime Alguersuari | 100.414 | 95.807 | 96.817 | 96.074 | 99.766 | 95.777 | ||
Karun Chandhok | 101.177 | 108.39 | 101.08 | 109.869 | 100.32 | 100.658 | ||
Jarno Trulli | 101.404 | 104.523 | 111.741 | 99.382 | ||||
Daniel Ricciardo | 106.073 | 103.544 | 102.856 | 102.576 | 101.597 | 101.319 | 101.106 | |
Narain Karthikeyan | 112.563 | 102.55 | 105.686 | 117.133 | 110.759 | 128.988 | ||
Timo Glock | 102.43 | 101.341 | 112.429 | |||||
Jerome d’Ambrosio | 103.852 | 102.168 | 101.695 | 102.022 | 101.759 | 105.347 | 116.969 |
Ultimate lap times
An ultimate lap is a driver’s fastest three sector times combined.
- Jenson Button was fastest and also had a little time in hand over Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel
Complete practice times
- Both Toro Rossos were in the top eight this morning at a track where they’ve shown good form in the past, particularly in 2009.
- The team only recently introduced their exhaust-blowing package onto their car which should be paying dividends at this circuit where downforce is crucial. Jaime Alguersuari was clearly pleased with his car in the first session, saying it had “a very good feeling in high speed” corners.
Speed trap
- The Toro Rossos were also the fastest cars through the speed trap
# | Driver | Car | Engine | Max speed | Gap | |
1 | 18 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso | Ferrari | 309.4 | |
2 | 19 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | Ferrari | 307.6 | 1.8 |
3 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | Renault | 306.9 | 2.5 |
4 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | Ferrari | 306.2 | 3.2 |
5 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | Ferrari | 306.2 | 3.2 |
6 | 4 | Jenson Button | McLaren | Mercedes | 305.1 | 4.3 |
7 | 3 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | Mercedes | 304.5 | 4.9 |
8 | 10 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | Renault | 302.5 | 6.9 |
9 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | Renault | 301.9 | 7.5 |
10 | 9 | Bruno Senna | Renault | Renault | 301.6 | 7.8 |
11 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | Mercedes | 301 | 8.4 |
12 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin | Cosworth | 298.1 | 11.3 |
13 | 17 | Sergio Perez | Sauber | Ferrari | 297.2 | 12.2 |
14 | 15 | Paul di Resta | Force India | Mercedes | 297.2 | 12.2 |
15 | 25 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Virgin | Cosworth | 295.7 | 13.7 |
16 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | Mercedes | 294.1 | 15.3 |
17 | 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | Cosworth | 293.6 | 15.8 |
18 | 14 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | Mercedes | 293 | 16.4 |
19 | 16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber | Ferrari | 293 | 16.4 |
20 | 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT | Cosworth | 292.2 | 17.2 |
21 | 11 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams | Cosworth | 291.1 | 18.3 |
22 | 22 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT | Cosworth | 285.1 | 24.3 |
23 | 21 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus | Renault | 282.7 | 26.7 |
24 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | Lotus | Renault | 279.5 | 29.9 |
2011 Japanese Grand Prix
Image ?é?® Red Bull/Getty images
Slr (@slr)
7th October 2011, 9:24
Toro Rosso are always good around Suzuka, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them score points. Hopefully Sauber’s pace will improve as the weekend progresses, I’d love to see both drivers score points.
Fixy (@)
7th October 2011, 14:57
@slr I hope they have a good results, possibly Sauber as well.
Eggry (@eggry)
7th October 2011, 10:13
Ferrari shows their tyre temperature problem again. Slower early, faster later.
BasCB (@bascb)
7th October 2011, 12:49
I am fascinated/impressed by that almost flat line from Buemi’s 7 lap stint. And Alg. is as fast, just not that consisten (Hm, seen that more often). Might be a good one for them.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
7th October 2011, 13:29
I hope so @BasCB
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
7th October 2011, 13:31
Certainly one hell of a gap from the top speed to the Sauber’s. They’re usually quite quick. Wonder if that will improve…
@HoHum (@hohum)
7th October 2011, 14:54
Ditto Force India.