German Adrian Sutil upstaged all four world champions and the top teams on Friday morning when he clocked the fastest time in opening free practice ahead of Sunday’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
The 27-year-old driver clocked a best time of 1min 56.583sec to come out on top of the timesheets ahead of both Ferraris after an intriguing first session.
This also saw the new Hispania team, with Bruno Senna at the wheel, run in earnest for the first time just hours after being passed safe to take part.
Senna is the nephew of three-times champion Ayrton Senna and it was his debut in F1.
Sutil’s best lap left him one-tenth of a second clear of nearest rival and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, making his debut for Ferrari, after his move from Renault. Sydney Morning Herald
Nico Rosberg was the faster of the two Mercedes drivers in eight, two places and nearly half a second ahead of team-mate Michael Schumacher, who is taking part in his first race since 2006 after coming out of retirement.
German Timo Glock was the fastest driver from the three new teams, 0.168secs ahead of the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen, whose team-mate Jarno Trulli was 0.122secs further behind. Auto Racing Daily
POS DRIVER ENTRANT TIME 1 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 01:56.6 2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 01:56.8 3 Robert Kubica Renault 01:57.0 4 Felipe Massa Ferrari 01:57.1 5 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 01:57.1 6 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 01:57.2 7 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 01:57.2 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 01:57.2 9 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 01:57.3 10 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 01:57.7 11 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 01:57.7 12 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 01:57.9 13 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 01:57.9 14 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 01:58.4 15 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 01:58.8 16 Vitaly Petrov Renault 01:58.9 17 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 02:00.3 18 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 02:01.4 19 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 02:03.7 20 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 02:03.8 21 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 02:04.0 22 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth No Time 23 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth No Time 24 Karun Chandhok HRT-Cosworth No Time
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