Spanish Grand Prix Final Practice: Vettel on Top

Sebastian Vettel topped the third and final practice in the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday. Considering that Vettel only drove for 13laps, it shows ominous signs of Vettel dominating again. Narain Karthikeyan of India who was frustrated yesterday due to lack of track time, finally could drive. He drove 24 laps in his HRT car compared to the 13 laps of his team mate Pedro de la Rosa and was faster than him. This should surely give the much needed confidence to Narain.

Michael Schumacher chose to drive 17 laps and was 17th in the timesheets with a time of 1:24.825. I don't think he would be bothered that his team mate Nico Rosberg drove for 24 laps and scored a faster time of 1:24.070.

Fernando Alonso, who had topped the FP1 times was 6th with a time of 1:23.807 while his team mate Felipe Massa was 11th with a time of 1:24.179.

With Qualifying scheduled in the afternoon, it is to be seen who wins the important qualifying battle.


Time Sheet for Third Practice

	Third Practice
Sl.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:23.168		13 laps
2	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1:23.336	0.168	19 laps
3	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	1:23.350	0.182	19 laps
4	Mark Webber	Red Bull	1:23.578	0.410	16 laps
5	Sergio Perez	Sauber	1:23.742	0.574	22 laps
6	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:23.807	0.639	15 laps
7	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1:23.833	0.665	14 laps
8	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:23.909	0.741	13 laps
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	1:23.936	0.768	16 laps
10	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:24.070	0.902	24 laps
11	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:24.179	1.011	16 laps
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:24.323	1.155	17 laps
13	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	1:24.3331	1.163	15 laps
14	Bruno Senna	Williams	1:24.409	1.241	18 laps
15	Paul de Resta	Force India	1:24.599	1.431	15 laps
16	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	1:24.778	1.610	15 laps
17	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1.24.825	1.657	17 laps
18	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	1:25.911	2.743	20 laps
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	1:26.587	3.419	20 laps
20	Charles Pic	Marussia	1:27.469	4.301	18 laps
21	Timo Glock	Marussia	1:27.689	4.521	16 laps
22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	1:28.207	5.039	24 laps
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	1:28.373	5.205	13 laps
24	Romain Grosjean	Lotus			2 laps

Spanish Grand Prix: Glory lap by Alonso

It was a bitter and sweet afternoon for the Spanish crowd watching the Friday practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix 2012.

Fernando Alonso who is adored by many of his fellow countrymen, didn't fail to charm the friday crowd in the Spanish Grand Prix and scored the P1 position at a time of 1:24.430. This was achieved in Ferrari's B- specd car. Alonso was 0.378 seconds faster than Sebastian Vettel of Redbul. Alonso's team mate in the other Ferrari, was down in 12th place a massive 1:003 seconds adrift.Michael Schumacher was 6th with a timing of 1:25.187 and his team mate Nico Rosberg was 14th with a timing of 1:25.607.

However, in the second practice Fernando Alonso could only score at 14th fastest lap time and his team mate who is generally struggling for the past two years scored a 11th fastest time. Jenson Button scored the P1 in the second practice followed by Sebastian Vettel. Nico Rosberg was third, Hamilton fourth, Raikkonen fifth, Grosjean sixth, Webber 7th followed by Schumacher at 8th position. Interestingly Schumacher drove 36 laps whereas his team mate Nico Rosberg drove 41laps ie. 5 laps more than him. With tyre degradation to become a major factor, it is important to see how the drivers cope up tomorrow as well as in the race day on Sunday.

The Indian fans were disappointed, as in the morning session Narain Karthikeyan didn't drive as Dani Clos - a spanish driver was given the drive to have an all spanish drive - as per earlier plan. In the second practice Narain Karthikeyan's car had developed an electrical problem and when he ventured very late in the second practice his car promptly stopped in turn three. We have to watch the impact of this lack of driving on Narain tomorrow. For the record, Dani Clos was a massive 2.511 seconds slower than his team mate Pedro de la Rosa, both of them driving 19 laps each.



The timings in First Practice:

	First Practice
Sl.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:24.430		20 laps
2	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:24.808	0.378	18 laps
3	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	1:24.912	0.482	28 laps
4	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:24.996	0.566	24 laps
5	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:25.120	0.690	24 laps
6	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1.25.187	0.757	15 laps
7	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:25.217	0.787	16 laps
8	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	1:25.252	0.822	20 laps
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	1:25.285	0.855	29 laps
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:25.339	0.909	24 laps
11	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1:25.367	0.937	22 laps
12	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:25.433	1.003	21 laps
13	Mark Webber	Red Bull	1:25.539	1.109	23 laps
14	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:25.607	1.177	20 laps
15	Sergio Perez	Sauber	1:25.918	1.488	19 laps
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	1:26.226	1.796	24 laps
17	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1:26.297	1.867	18 laps
18	Jules Bianchi	Force India	1:26.630	2.200	21 laps
19	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	1:27.475	3.045	20 laps
20	Timo Glock	Marussia	1:28.267	3.837	21 laps
21	Alexander Rossi	Caterham	1:28.448	4.018	25 laps
22	Charles Pic	Marussia	1:28.633	4.203	22 laps
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	1:29.107	4.677	19 laps
24	Dani Clos	HRT	1:31.618	7.188	19 laps

The Timings in Second Practice:

Second Practice Sl. Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1 Jenson Button McLaren  1:23.399 38 laps 2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull  1:23.563 0.164 38 laps 3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes  1:23.771 0.372 41 laps 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren  1:23.909 0.510 32 laps 5 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus  1:23.918 0.519 32 laps 6 Romain Grosjean Lotus  1:23.964 0.565 37 laps 7 Mark Webber Red Bull  1:24.065 0.666 34 laps 8 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1.24.080 0.681 36 laps 9 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber  1:24.214 0.815 41 laps 10 Nico Hulkenberg Force India  1:24.365 0.966 22 laps 11 Felipe Massa Ferrari  1:24.418 1.019 35 laps 12 Sergio Perez Sauber  1:24.422  1.023 32 laps 13 Pastor Maldonado Williams   1:24.468 1.069 40 laps 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari  1:24.600 1.201 33 laps 15 Paul DiResta Force India  1:24.688 1.289 30 laps 16 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso  1:24.733 1.334 34 laps 17 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso  1:24.769 1.370 37 laps 18 Bruno Senna Williams   1:25.047 1.648  42 laps 19 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham  1:26.296 2.897 36 laps 20 Vitaly Petrov Caterham  1:26.740 3.341 35 laps 21 Timo Glock Marussia  1:27.314 3.915 27 laps 22 Charles Pic Marussia  1:27.664 4.265 30 laps 23 Pedro de la Rosa HRT  1:28.235 4.836 26 laps 24 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 2 laps

All Spanish Driver Lineup for HRT in FP1

HRT which is a Spanish team, has decided to opt for an all Spanish driver lineup in the First Practice in Spanish Grand Prix.

Dani Clos, a Spanish driver, who was earlier taken by HRT as a reserve driver, is given the opportunity