Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was an unlikely pace-setter on the first day of action at the inaugural Indian Grand Prix.
The Brazilian eclipsed Red Bull’s double world champion Sebastian Vettel by 0.088 seconds with Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso third.
Lewis Hamilton was fourth with McLaren team-mate Jenson Button sixth.
But Hamilton has been handed a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race after failing to slow down for yellow caution flags in the first session.
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Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton Fastest in First Practice at India
Formula 1: Indian Grand Prix - First Practice Results
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That means no matter how fast Hamilton goes during qualifying he cannot start in pole position for the second race in a row.
It was a positive start to the weekend for Force India at the race they regard as their spiritual home grand prix with Adrian Sutil seventh and Paul di Resta ninth.
There was an amusing tussle between Sutil and Indian Karun Chandhok, who lost out on a race seat at his home race this weekend as Team Lotus decided to stick with regular driver Jarno Trulli. BBC Sport
Sebastien Buemi completed the top 10 for Toro Rosso with 1m 27.868s from Vitaly Petrov, who spun the other Renault but later managed 1m 27.890s.
Kamui Kobayashi was 12th for Sauber on 1m 28.050s, with team mate Perez right with him on 1m 28.289s, then came Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari on 1m 28.552s, the Williamses of Rubens Barrichello and Maldonado on 1m 28.691s and 1m 28.708s, and Jarno Trulli’s Lotus on 1m 29.332s.
Heikki Kovalainen took his Lotus back from local hero Karun Chandhok and did 1m 30.241s for 18th, then came Nico Rosberg on 1m 31.098s in the first of the Mercedes. Like his team mate Michael Schumacher who was 21st on 1m 31.804s, the younger German focused mainly on race set-up work.
Timo Glock was again in strong form for Virgin with 1m 31.469s, while team mate Jerome D’Ambrosio lapped his MVR-02 in 1m 32.593s. The HRTs were right with him with Daniel Ricciardo on 1m 32.768s and the other local hero, Narain Karthikeyan, again doing a very good job with 1m 32.824s. Formula1
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