Japanese GP – Free Practice 2: Button Confirms Ahead of Alonso and Vettel

It is under a beautiful sun and with the temperature reaching 37°C on the track that the drivers begin this afternoon’s free practice session as Heikki Kovalainen, Adrian Sutil, and Vitantonio Liuzzi return to their respective seats. The Finnish driver does not linger in his garage and is the first driver on track. Behind the wheel of his Lotus T128, Kovalainen sets the first timed lap at 1’43”930, a time immediately beaten by Kamui Kobayashi and then Vitaly Petrov, with the Russian bringing the mark below the 1 minute 36 mark.

Jenson Button, who set the fastest time during the first free practice session, is the first of the top drivers to take the lead in the standings with a time of 1’34”562, which is soon improved by Lewis Hamilton. As Sebastian Vettel heads out of the pitlane for his first stint of the afternoon, Vitantonio Liuzzi, who gave up his seat to Karthikeyan in the morning, will not benefit from this second free practice session: the Italian is forced to park his car on the side near the 130R corner.

A few moments later, Fernando Alonso climbs to the top of the hierarchy with a time of 1:33.854, which he improves to 1:33.503, thanks to a very good second sector where the 150° Italia seems to perform well. After achieving two good first sectors, Felipe Massa ultimately does not manage to deliver in the third and has to settle for the fourth provisional time, while Jaime Alguersuari exits the pits for his first stint and secures the 7th place with a time of 1:35.015.

After keeping his DRS open a bit too long at the entry of the first corner, Bruno Senna loses control of his car, which ends up sliding into the gravel: the Brazilian resumes with the help of the marshals and returns to the pits to change tires and check that the car hasn’t suffered more from this off-track excursion.

After half an hour of testing, Alonso remains at the top of the timesheet as he prepares to get back on track. The Spaniard leads Webber, Vettel, Massa, Hamilton, Button, Alguersuari, Schumacher, Petrov, and Buemi. In fifteenth, Nico Rosberg appears to be on a race preparation program, similar to this morning.

All the drivers are still on medium tires, the harder of the two compounds that Pirelli is offering this weekend, with the soft yellow-striped tires. After improving in his first sector, Fernando Alonso finishes his lap six-tenths off his best time. Despite a good first sector as well and negotiating the 130R with the DRS open, Mark Webber does not improve, unlike Jaime Alguersuari who moves up to third place in the provisional standings, albeit on soft tires.

On soft tires, the 1 minute 33 barrier doesn’t resist Felipe Massa’s attacks as he logically takes the best time with 1’32”448, despite a perfectible third sector. But Rubens Barrichello steals the spotlight from his compatriot by putting two wheels in the grass at the Degner braking zone, a mistake the Brazilian pays for dearly by crashing his Williams, in reverse, into the tire wall: end of session for the Paulista.

A few moments later, it was Bruno Senna’s turn to have a scare by putting his wheels on the grass at the exit of the second Degner corner, but fortunately without any consequences for the driver and his car.

Fernando Alonso, after fitting the soft tires, leads the timing sheet and falls just short of the 1 minute 31 mark with a time of 1’32”075, while the two Toro Rosso drivers are battling with the stopwatch. Mark Webber is also not wasting any time and, after setting the fastest first sector of the session, finishes 72 thousandths behind Alonso’s time, also on soft tires.

Jenson Button is the first to go under the 1 minute 32 mark, with 1’31″901, on soft tires while Pastor Maldonado causes a new yellow flag due to a failure on his car: Williams starts its Japanese weekend in the worst way. The yellow flag interrupted the leading drivers, like Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, in their momentum while Kamui Kobayashi experiences an adrenaline rush in the 130R, where his Sauber goes sideways at full speed: magnificent control by the Japanese driver who gets back on track and continues his session as if nothing happened.

As the drivers enter the final quarter-hour of this practice session, few drivers have stayed in their garages. Jenson Button leads Alonso, Vettel, Webber, Massa, Schumacher, Rosberg, Hamilton, Petrov, and Buemi.

As often this season, the drivers conclude this second free practice session by preparing for the race on soft tires and doing long stints. In this exercise, Red Bull shows its advantage, maintaining a pace around one minute 37, even though the fuel loads of the cars are unknown. Meanwhile, despite complaining about the rear behavior of his car, Michael Schumacher demonstrates it visually by going wide on the first corner.

The drivers cross under the checkered flag without significant improvement in their times. Jenson Button and McLaren confirm their good form on the Japanese circuit: the Briton is ahead this time of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.

Free Practice 2 Results of the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix