Lewis Hamilton was quickest in the first practice session for the Indian Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver hit the top of the times with his last lap of the session.
The Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were second and third, separated by one hundredth of a second.
Jenson Button was a slightly frustrated fourth-fastest having been held up by Narain Karthikeyan late in the session.
The first practice session for the Indian Grand Prix began with the four Indian representatives jostling to be first out of the pits.
Adrian Sutil won this minor contest for Force India, before being overtaken by Karun Chandhok. The other Force India of Paul di Resta followed them, along with Karthikeyan.
While the others did single installation laps, Chandhok remained on track to set the first ever lap of the new circuit.
Proceedings came to a halt soon after as Chandhok passed a dog on his subsequent tour. Several had been spotted around the track before the start of the session.
The session was restarted after a five-minute delay and continued without further canine interruptions.
Fernando Alonso dropped out of the session halfway through when he lost power on his Ferrari, leaving Felipe Massa to complete the day’s work for the team. He ran the new front wing Alonso had raced in Korea, which was seen vibrating heavily at turn four at one point.
Drivers struggled for grip on the dusty track and several of them ran wide or had spins during the session. The only one to make it as far as a barrier was Jaime Alguersuari, who went off at turn nine.
It was slippery in the pit lane as well as Chandhok found out to his cost. The Lotus driver almost hit Pastor Maldonado as he got too much wheelspin while leaving his pit bix.
Maldonado’s session ended early as plumes of smoke came from his Williams at the exit of turn four, forcing him to pull over.
The yellow flags came out as the car was recovered and were being withdrawn as Hamilton set his final flying lap.
Michael Schumacher ended the session fifth ahead of his team mate, having been fastest early on.
Felipe Massa was seventh for Ferrari with Sutil, Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi completing the top ten.
Update: Follow the session Hamilton and Sergio Perez were given penalties for ignoring double waved yellow flags.
2011 Indian Grand Prix
BBT (@bbt)
28th October 2011, 7:16
Wonder if we’ll hear any more about the double waved yellow and green light in the last sector as Hamilton set his time.
Dphect (@dphect)
28th October 2011, 8:36
Should be okay, the flags weren’t waving on his last lap, but they were on his second to last.
BBT (@bbt)
28th October 2011, 9:01
The flags were waving on his last lap, its just timing and the track lights that showed green.
Is that penalty official.
What with three places I thought it was 5 or 10 normally?
BasCB (@bascb)
28th October 2011, 8:56
Well, it was not that OK. Both Hamilton and Perez got a 3 place grid penalty for ignoring double waved yellows a moment ago.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
28th October 2011, 9:07
@bbt Sure enough: Hamilton and Perez given grid penalties
Tyson Evans (@bobtehblob)
28th October 2011, 7:17
Why is Massa shown as 24th in the table?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
28th October 2011, 7:19
Typo. Fixed.
BasCB (@bascb)
28th October 2011, 7:17
Seems something is not right with the table @keithcollantine, it has Massa in 24th!
BBT (@bbt)
28th October 2011, 7:18
Decent pace for the FI’s.
Interesting stuff going on with Massa’s wing, I think the FIA will be interested in that one.
BBQ2
28th October 2011, 8:14
Normal Ferrari flexi-wings? :P
alexf1man (@alexf1man)
28th October 2011, 8:33
Malaysia 2006, only with the front instead of the rear!
JCost (@jcost)
28th October 2011, 8:54
Apparently, Mercedes has a new front wing eying next season since Japan.
http://www.auto.it/autosprint/formula_1/2011/10/20-9553/Mercedes+rivoluziona+il+2012
BasCB (@bascb)
28th October 2011, 7:18
Anyone think Sutil has his mind set on being the Indian Hero this weekend, making it an extra embarresing thing for Force India to drop him at the end of the season?
BBT (@bbt)
28th October 2011, 7:27
@BasCB Yes, maybe… 4 – 5th on the cards with the help of an engine blow up in front of him?
Wouldn’t that be interesting. Personally I don’t see why they don’t keep the same partnership.
Todfod (@todfod)
28th October 2011, 12:35
I completely agree. In the 2nd half of the season, Sutil has looked much stronger than DiResta. And honestly, I just cannot see Hulkenberg doing a better job than Sutil.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
28th October 2011, 7:32
Does he shoot lightning?
Does he throw his enemies through car windshields?
Can he powerslide a horse?
Does he teleport to Switzerland in the middle of a dance-off?
Can he pronounce “jai ho” properly? (Nicole Scherzinger can’t; she says “jay hoe” …)
If the answer to any of these is no, Adrian Sutil is not an Indian hero.
BasCB (@bascb)
28th October 2011, 7:37
LOL
silencer (@silencer)
28th October 2011, 8:07
hahaha…
:D
Dev (@dev)
28th October 2011, 8:08
he can hit you with broken glass? will that do??
JCost (@jcost)
28th October 2011, 8:57
“Jay Hoe” LMAO!
Rob Wilson (@rob-wilson)
28th October 2011, 7:24
Why Bob Marley and “One Love” on Lewis’ helmet? At first glance i thought it was Marco..but no, it’s Bob Marley…but why? Sorry if this is a bit off-topic but i don’t know where else i could ask this.
BasCB (@bascb)
28th October 2011, 7:33
Guess its a message to NS that he still diggs here, even if they split up. Got us quite engaged in discussion in the live blog as well
But it could be just about anything, maybe Marley being Anthony hamiltons favourite artist or whatever.
Magnificent Geoffrey (@magnificent-geoffrey)
28th October 2011, 7:34
Lewis is a fan of Bob Marley and his music.
Like @LAK suggested in the live blog, it may be a thinly-veiled reference to his recent split with Nicole Scherzinger and Marley’s famous song ‘No Woman, No Cry’.
However, we could just bee looking too much into it.
Rob Wilson (@rob-wilson)
28th October 2011, 7:36
Just seen this tweet – Lewis’s Bob Marley helmet: a few months ago, he was asked by the Marley family to sport the special design in India this weekend…
That explains it.
BasCB (@bascb)
28th October 2011, 7:35
Just got the answer from McLaren (@TheFifthDriver on twitter):
One love for India then from Marley?
Nas-T
28th October 2011, 7:26
Karun almost two second slower than Trulli. Tony make a good decision.
BBT (@bbt)
28th October 2011, 7:29
…and Trulli hasn’t been particularly quick this session…. bit of an odd / big gap though.
BBT (@bbt)
28th October 2011, 7:29
*season*
Dizzy
28th October 2011, 8:16
Trulli went out on the Soft’s while Karun only ran the Hard’s.
Dev (@dev)
28th October 2011, 8:24
not true, if thats the case then lotus will have return one unused soft tire before FP2
dam00r (@dam00r)
28th October 2011, 8:31
Why is this odd? Karun have almost not driven the car and not been racing for a while and also being on the hard tyres, that’s actually a pretty impressive time.
BBT (@bbt)
28th October 2011, 8:57
Nah, its practise and he has been in the car in practise, soft vs hard tyre might explain it most of it, I didn’t know that.
Other drivers have stepped into car with less miles in a car than Karun (even first time in the car) and they have been competitive (within 0.5s). Just cos he is a nice guy doesn’t make his time impressive, far from impressive from him I’m afraid. Is he taking part in FP2, if so I hope he can put some decent times in.
Like I said Trulli has been pretty poor this session, I’d be surprised if that is Lotus full potential.
Scary Terry (@hatebreeder)
28th October 2011, 7:28
how is the track? like trackwise? amazing or just like any other, but with dogs and other farm animals?
BasCB (@bascb)
28th October 2011, 7:34
First look, its an interesting track, although the dust made it even more of a challenge, it seems.
I guess with FP2 being a bit more cleaned up, it might get the drivers into a real groove to see what the track offers.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
28th October 2011, 7:38
I like the circuit. One of the things we keep hearing in race telecasts is the way television doesn’t really show elevations accurately. And is shows; there’s a drop on the straight before the last corner in Bahrain, and it’s quite a hefty one, but you never really see it on television. Here, though … here, you can see the elevations.
I particularly like Turn 3. The cars keep far to the left for the ideal line, but the circuit widens to promote overtaking. Combined with the hill, the end result is that the turn-in point is completely blind. Turn 12 is pretty good, too; you’ve got the long Spoon-like Turn 10, which gets tighter in Turn 11, and then the road drops away as soon as you get back on the power, and the cars go wide over the rumble strips. Looks like a critical spot for a good lap time, but very easy to spin it if you get on the power too soon.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
28th October 2011, 11:06
And I was right – d’Ambrosio blew it.
Fixy (@)
28th October 2011, 14:23
It’s always curious to see which drivers miss it on a new track.
Alain (@paganbasque)
28th October 2011, 7:50
The track is full of dust(quite logic) but what has impressed me more is the…fog or smog? I am not sure about that. But the contamination is very present in that area.
It seems that this race will offer us a great battle between Mclaren and Rb, with Mercedes having a good pace, the first and second sectors of Michael have been very fast so the german car will be a very difficult car to overtake, be careful Lewis. :)
Kremer (@kremer)
28th October 2011, 7:59
I don’t think one can blame the track design based solely on environmental mess (pollution/dust) for this specific weekend.
I think it’s a great track, maybe the best new track since Turkey.
If fans want it live up to its true potential, how about demanding the Indian gov’t crack down on environmental pollution more than it’s already trying to do.
(And also demand China cease the overwhelming pollution within 100km of its F1 track for 3 or 4 weeks before the race weekend.)
Todfod (@todfod)
28th October 2011, 12:55
Yeah cause thats why the Indian govt. will decide to take pollution controlling measures – To please bloggers on f1fanatic
Harvs (@harvs)
28th October 2011, 8:02
A question for the fanatics obsessed with the details, When was the last time a car other than Red Bull was fastest in 7 consecutive practice sessions?
Harvs (@harvs)
28th October 2011, 8:03
oh excluding the run McLaren have now?
PieLighter (@pielighter)
28th October 2011, 8:55
Probably Brawn, if not then 2005-2008 when they were in the midfield.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
28th October 2011, 8:22
Well, at least Chandhok managed to get one milestone out of this weekend!
qk
28th October 2011, 8:26
it looks like cars are running too slow(not F1-fast).. is it me?
the track seems to play tricks with my eyes..
is it the elevation, or just the dust?
Dphect (@dphect)
28th October 2011, 8:43
I think it’s most probably a mixture of the dust and the drivers still learning where they can and can’t push it hard on the track.
Although, Rubens did say on his simulator he was estimating the lap times will be around the 1:26 – 27 range, which they are for the top few.
BasCB (@bascb)
28th October 2011, 8:40
Interesting remarks from Pirelli on twitter – @Paul Hembery
BasCB (@bascb)
28th October 2011, 8:54
Looks like the Stewards deemed that incident with the yellow flags in the end to have been a serious infringement.
@tw_teamlotus on twitter:
PieLighter (@pielighter)
28th October 2011, 8:56
well done hamilton, another trip to the stewards! :D
racingfanatic96 (@racingfanatic96)
28th October 2011, 15:04
What if a cow wanders on? They wouldn’t be allowed to move it, cows are sacred in India
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
28th October 2011, 15:06
They don’t move as quickly as dogs, I don’t think it’ll be a problem.