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Alonso, Button Take Top Friday Times In Spain

BARCELONA, Spain- Following a very balmy Friday morning, along with a warm afternoon Friday practice session, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button set the fastest times in the day’s events leading up to Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain.

The morning dew was a little bit of a problem early on, as the temperatures on the circuit could only go as high as 90 degrees only, which in comparison to this track on a regular basis, was still very cold. But Alonso had no difficulties taking the top spot in front of his home fans with a time of 1:24:430, just ahead of Japanese Kamui Kobyaschi in his new Chelsea football sponsored Sauber, who led for quite a long part of the morning until Alonso changed it. The Spaniard only ran this session in just 20 laps, becoming very satisfied despite having very big doubts the day before.

Sebastian Vettel was the only real challenger in getting no more than three tenths of a second near Alonso all morning. Two new faces premiered in this session and these were Dani Clos in the HRT and American Alexander Rossi in the Caterham. Rossi himself finish in an impressive 21 st place in his maiden drive in a Formula One car, while Clos was not so fortunate with a last place result.

While the morning was relatively cool in the sense of weather, the afternoon was very different. The heat made the grip a lot bit easier and certain drivers who were slow in the morning, such as Jenson Button, improved their lap times. The 2009 World Champion topped the best time of the day, with a 1:23:399, just ahead of a steady Vettel, and the Mercedes powered cars, of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Both Lotus challengers of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean were next in fifth and sixth, respectively, achieving just what Vettel did-remaining steady on the grid.

Alonso in the afternoon session, could get nowhere near the front, and at one time slid wide on turn seven, while others experimented their increase of speed with more grip, such as Mark Webber, who deposited stones and rocks all over turn four, while Sergio Perez did the same later on in the session. Hamilton got it wide once in turn 13, missing the chicane altogether, but the unfortunate hero was HRT’s Narain Karthekeyan, who had to stop at turn three, on his out lap, while his car encountered an electrical problem, keeping him in the pits for most of the session.

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