Formula 1 Hot News

Bahrain: Sutil tops morning track cleaning session

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Adrian Sutil

Adrian Sutil set the fastest time in the first free practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix for Force India. The time may be irrelevant, however, since the session was more an exercise in cleaning and rubbering in the track surface.

The German edged double world champion and pre-season favorite Fernando by just 0.183s.

Robert Kubica provided another surprise by going third fastest for Renault, 0.458s back from Sutil, and less than three tenths faster than Felipe Massa's second Ferrari.

The McLarens of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton were next up.

Vitantonio Liuzzi proved the pace of the Force India in seventh ahead of Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber and the returning Michael Schumacher – who was more than 0.4s slower than Rosberg, his Mercedes teammate.

Results

Pos

 Driver Team Time Behind Laps
1. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:56.583 +0.000 18
2. Alonso Ferrari 1:56.766 +0.183 18
3. Kubica Renault 1:57.041 +0.458 19
4. Massa Ferrari 1:57.055 +0.472 19
5. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:57.068 +0.485 19
6. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:57.163 +0.580 19
7. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:57.194 +0.611 19
8. Rosberg Mercedes 1:57.199 +0.616 15
9. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:57.255 +0.672 17
10. Schumacher Mercedes 1:57.662 +1.079 16
11. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:57.722 +1.139 18
12. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:57.894 +1.311 20
13. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:57.943 +1.360 17
14. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:58.399 +1.816 13
15. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:58.782 +2.199 11
16. Petrov Renault 1:58.880 +2.297 13
17. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 2:00.250 +3.667 18
18. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 2:01.388 +4.805 11
19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 2:03.680 +7.097 8
20. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 2:03.848 +7.265 21
21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 2:03.970 +7.387 15
22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth NT N/A 2
23. Senna HRT-Cosworth NT N/A 3
24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth NT N/A 0