Japan 2011 - Free Practice 1 results - Button tops the times in the first session at Suzuka
Published by Christine
It took well over half an hour for any real pace to be shown out on track at Suzuka this morning, but once all that cars were out there and running, there was plenty to behold. McLaren led the way, with Jenson Button just sneaking ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The big news was the sight of Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull car off track and heading for the barriers. He didn't do too much damage, and was fine again for FP2. Pastor Maldonado had a big off, avoided the barriers, but had to retire the car anyway.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:33.634 | 20 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 1:33.725 | 18 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1:34.090 | 22 |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:34.372 | 24 |
| 5 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 1:34.426 | 25 |
| 6 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | 1:34.937 | 23 |
| 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:35.585 | 27 |
| 8 | Sébastien Buemi | Toro Rosso | 1:35.590 | 25 |
| 9 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:36.033 | 22 |
| 10 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1:36.370 | 18 |
| 11 | Bruno Senna | Renault | 1:36.487 | 18 |
| 12 | Nico Hülkenberg | Force India | 1:36.700 | 21 |
| 13 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber | 1:36.948 | 24 |
| 14 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 1:36.949 | 22 |
| 15 | Sergio Pérez | Sauber | 1:37.103 | 29 |
| 16 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:38.197 | 18 |
| 17 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams | 1:38.331 | 11 |
| 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 1:38.446 | 8 |
| 19 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus | 1:39.168 | 10 |
| 20 | Karun Chandhok | Lotus | 1:39.946 | 22 |
| 21 | Timo Glock | Virgin | 1:40.872 | 13 |
| 22 | Jérôme D'Ambrosio | Virgin | 1:41.019 | 24 |
| 23 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT | 1:41.106 | 25 |
| 24 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT | 1:41.775 | 25 |
