India – Free Practice 2: Vettel Persists but Red Bull Worries

The second free practice session of the 2013 Indian Grand Prix will likely proceed normally for Fernando Alonso, whose car is repaired. Paul di Resta, on the other hand, is back in the seat of his single-seater after having left it to James Calado during FP1. On the weather side, the haze due to pollution is still present and temperatures have risen quite significantly: 30°C in the air and 40°C on the track.

The session is open. After the usual installation lap, Räikkönen is the first reference driver to set a time, with 1:28.419. Nico Hülkenberg notes, on his side, that the braking is much better than during the morning’s first practice. While Grosjean takes the best time at 1:27.531 after 10 minutes into the session, soon eclipsed by the inevitable Vettel at 1:26.236, Räikkönen spins at the hairpin.

After ten minutes, Vettel leads ahead of Grosjean, Hamilton, Alonso, and Massa. The drivers are putting in fast laps on medium tires for the moment. Grosjean gets within five-thousandths of Vettel before the latter improves his time by three-tenths, despite slight interference from some cars at the end of the last sector. Apparently, the German is still experiencing difficulties with his KERS. For Jenson Button, the rear of the car is sliding a lot: this weekend, the settings choice for the Brit’s car is clearly geared towards the 2014 season. Rosberg takes the lead in the session with 1:27.010, one-thousandth ahead of Webber and 49-thousandths ahead of Vettel.

After twenty minutes, Rosberg in his Mercedes leads the two Red Bulls of Webber and Vettel, Pérez’s McLaren, and Grosjean’s Lotus. The track is very calm at this point in the session, with only the two Force India cars and Gutierrez on track. The three are joined by Grosjean. Vettel and Räikkönen are the first drivers to test the soft tires. The Finn makes a mistake in the big curve that controls the fast section, which compromises his lap and his set of tires. However, Vettel improves by 1.2 seconds with a time of 1:25.722. Grosjean, still on his medium tires, improves and takes provisional second position with 1:26.955: it’s the fastest time of the day on these tires.

After half an hour, Vettel leads Grosjean, Rosberg, Webber, and Pérez. Webber puts on the softs as Vettel continues to improve his first two sectors before heading into the pits. The Australian makes significant progress and places himself three-tenths behind the other Red Bull. Räikkönen, also on softs, is six-tenths behind Webber and only three-tenths ahead of Grosjean, who set his time on mediums. The same goes for Rosberg.

Fifty minutes before the checkered flag, Vettel is at the top of the time sheets followed by Webber, Rosberg, Räikkönen, and Massa. Their times were set on soft tires. In contrast, Grosjean and Hamilton have yet to set a time with Pirelli’s yellow range tires. At Red Bull, the mechanics are busy at the rear of Sebastian Vettel’s car, possibly looking into the KERS, which was faulty a few minutes earlier. Still in the pit lane: Vijay Mallya is organizing things at Force India before calmly returning to the pit wall. On the track, Grosjean takes third position, falling five-tenths short of Vettel on soft tires. As for Alonso, he is stringing together laps: he takes the provisional fourth place, seven-tenths behind Red Bull No. 1, which is still in the RBR box.

**Forty minutes before the end of the session**, Vettel, Webber, Grosjean, Alonso, and Rosberg make up the provisional top 5. The Red Bull of the triple world champion is finally back on track, seemingly without completely resolving the issue that plagued it. Meanwhile, Räikkönen still seems to be struggling as he goes wide once again. Hamilton finally switches to soft tires and clocks the fourth-fastest provisional time, nearly seven-tenths behind Vettel. Hülkenberg, while returning to the pits, observes the state of his front left soft tire: « My god, it looks ugly ». The rubber is indeed in a rather poor state.

Thirty minutes to go, Vettel is first, followed by Webber, Grosjean, Hamilton, and Alonso. The drivers are on longer stints: Vettel also notes the suffering of the front left tire while he is on a series of laps on softs. Overall, the soft tires are going to be severely tested on the Buddh circuit, where Pirelli is bringing them for the first time since this race was established. The German, moreover, goes through the pits to switch back to medium compounds. The degradation is such that Adrian Newey from the Red Bull team has come to witness the extent of the problem and discuss with the engineers of the Italian manufacturer. On the track, fuel-heavy stints follow one another. Maldonado is slowing down on the track: the Venezuelan seems on the verge of losing his right front tire as the nut seems to have come loose and the rim appears to be damaged. Wisely, the Williams car comes to a stop in a run-off area.

Speaking on Canal +, Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director, is relatively optimistic: The medium is an aggressive choice on our part. The soft seems set to last around 10 laps, while the mediums will do 25. There are a lot of blisters on the tire because of an increase in temperature [notably in turn 10].

A quarter of an hour from the end, Vettel is ahead of Webber, Grosjean, Hamilton, and Alonso. The drivers are clearly no longer in a performance-seeking situation. Long stints are either continuing or following one after the other. The Lotus pit orders Räikkönen to keep running on the softs « until it’s no longer safe to drive with them ». The Finn is on an impressive stint of about twenty laps with these tires – without them seeming too worn, much like Alonso but at a slower pace. As for Grosjean, he completed an 18-lap stint on medium tires, logically lapping about two to three seconds faster than the drivers on worn soft tires. Stints on mediums end around the twentieth lap on average for the front-runners, similar to Vettel’s. Mark Webber goes even further as his lasted 26 laps. The main question remains what the exact fuel load is with which these stints are carried out.

The session ends with the new fastest time set by Sebastian Vettel ahead of Mark Webber and Romain Grosjean. The impression, however, is that Red Bull struggles to maintain the soft tires in good condition, while the Lotus cars can manage them quite easily.

Free Practice 2 Results of the 2013 Indian Grand Prix: