2010 Season is Under Starters Orders: Adrain Sutil Fastest
That's right after early morning testing in Bahrain the pace setter was Force Indian’s Adrain Sutil was the quickest.
The first practice session is early indication as to who will be on pole come tomorrow afternoon when the first qualifying of 2010 will take place. Although remember that teams have to take race fuel into the final qualifying leg, so it will be interesting to see who has the better car when they are all fat with fuel.
Other drivers who did well in practice: The McLaren of Jenson Button was quicker than team mate Lewis Hamilton. Button’s quickest lap was 1minute 71.068seconds, whilst Hamilton could only manage 1minute 57.163seconds.
Championship favourite Fernando Alonso’s quickest time was quicker than close rivals Red Bull and McLaren a 1minute 56.766 second lap after struggling in the early laps. Red Bull driver Mark Webber predictably on similar pace to McLaren with Webber managing a lap of 1minute 57.255.
Michael Schumacher could only get his Mercedes GP car 10th fastest (1minute 57.662) behind German team mate Nico Rosberg who smashed that time by nearly half a second. Out of the new teams Lotus, HRT and Virgin Racing. At this early stage the honour of quickest slow car can go to Timo Glock driving for Virgin racing with a time of 2minutes 03.680 seconds. Lotus where second quickest of the slowest, all ahead of HRT who did not set a time, but did get a big cheer from the crowed when Bruno Senna took his car on a three lap drive.
So does this answer any questions? Most of the bigger teams will use the session to map setups, and gather technical data rather than set a quick lap time. Will Adrain Sutil sit on pole for the first race of the season in a Force India? probably not with odds of 24/5 to make the podium. Fernando Alonso still enjoys being the bookies favourite 5/2 to win from Blue SQ
All odds correct at time of writing and are subject to change
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