Vettel Takes Friday Practice On Crazy Day In Japan

SUZUKA, Japan- Following a wild day of crashes and spins, Sebastian Vettel managed to edge closer to winning his fourth consecutive world driving title by setting a 1:33:852 fastest time in the second practice session for Sunday’s Grand prix of Japan at Suzuka.

Vettel managed to set the fastest time on low fuel and medium tires, going 1.168 seconds faster than Red Bull teammate Mark Webber and 0.2 seconds than third place Nico Rosberg.

All day long, there were many incidents that occurred even on a dry track and the thrills began with the first session as Lewis Hamilton was the only person who came through unscathed, setting a 1:34:157 best time ahead of Nico Rosberg, with Vettel taking third. To begin things off, F1 rookies Jules Bianchi and Giedo Van de Garde both went off separately at the second degner, with the latter damaging his Marussia so bad that he could not participate in the final practice session of the day. Bianchi himself lost his rear of his car and tried to correct his slide, but his arm got jammed against the inside of the cockpit, and could not control his steering when it counted the most. The Frenchman had no damage physically, with the exception of an icepack he was wearing. However, Bianchi will be back for Saturday qualifying.

Van de Garde on the other hand, ran wide at excessive speeds, but managed to slow down and minimized the danger to his Caterham.

In another incident that session, Pastor Maldonado ran wide into the run off area at spoon corner. He attempted to return to the track again only to have the rear wheel slip off the hub and sent him spinning. He had a long walk back to the pits.

In the lsecond session, Sergio Perez spun his Mclaren after putting a wheel on the artificial grass at spoon and slid sideways into the barrier, but had no problems after being cleared by the medical center. Raikkonen and Alosno also spun, with the Finn losing his rear of his Lotus on the entry to Dunlop corner and ran into the gravel and remained there. The Spaniard spun on his medium tires at Degner 1, but managed to regain control of his car but finished way down the standings on the day.

With the whole day becoming quite a thrill, it might even be tougher when Saturday practice takes place Saturday afternoon.

Mark Gero

Mark Gero has written formula one racing stories since 2002 on the Internet for such sites as Motorsport.com, Racing Information Service News and for a brief time at the Munich Eye newspaper in Munich, Germany along with Autoweek online. Mark also has a diploma in journalism from the London School of Journalism in London, England and in addition a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa.

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