Formula 1 2013 Japanese Grand Prix – Sebastian Vettel Closes On Title

Practice

Red Bull mostly led the way in practice, with Vettel taking P3 and P1 on Friday, though he dropped to P9 on Saturday morning with a mechanical issue, doing just eight laps. Webber finished P4, P2, P1 across the three sessions, loving the circuit and saying they needed more pace after Friday's sessions and that Lotus and Mercedes were close. Mercedes were well in the mix, with Rosberg going second-third-third through practice and Hamilton backing it up with first-sixth-second. Both drivers enjoyed it and said the car felt great, but had concerns regarding tyre wear for the race ahead. Lotus had somewhat mixed fortunes, as Raikkonen spun in FP2 and Grosjean said finding the right balance and getting the tyres to work was tricky. Raikkonen achieved P8-P4-P8 and Grosjean P7-P5-P4 as they worked to get the setup right. Ferrari didn't have the best day, as Alonso was somewhat distracted by the news regarding Maria de Villota that was announced on Friday, and spun on Friday. Massa did a little better with P5-P8-P6 result, ahead of Alonso's P6-P10-P5 outings. Both drivers felt the car was alright but needed more work, and Alonso was concerned about both McLaren and Torro Rosso getting ahead come qualifying. McLaren had a mixed practice, with Button posting P11-P9-P7, feeling their performance on the prime tyre was alright but that the option needed some work. Perez ended up P9-P16-P11 with a heavy accident at Spoon corner in FP2 after dropping the right rear wheel off the circuit. It limited their running and long-run data gathering for the race. Torro Rosso looked better than they have recently with P10-P7-P13 and P13-P12-P12 across the three sessions, with both drivers quite pleased at how the car was developing and their overall pace, looking for a little more balance ahead of qualifying. Sauber had a solid midfield run, with Hulkenberg posting P12-P13-P10, happy with the car and balance, and targeting Q3 for qualifying again. Gutierrez had a less successful outing overall, with P18-P11-P16 as he learnt the challenging circuit on his Suzuka debut, feeling the car also needed some more work. Force India had a difficult Friday and not much better Saturday as Di Resta could only manage P17-P14-P15, with Sutil P14-P15-P18. Both drivers felt the car was difficult to drive, struggling with under and oversteer, though Di Resta felt their long run consistency was reasonable. Sutil made a mistake in FP3 that damaged the gearbox, calling for a change and getting him a 5-place grid penalty for the race. Williams failed to take any steps forward, though Bottas ran a lot of laps Friday. Maldonado had left rear tyre issues in FP1 and then went off in FP2, hampering his running. Bottas struggled with balance and achieved P16-P17-P17 whilst Maldonado's P15-P18-P14 was little better. Caterham again out-performed the Marussia's, with Kovalainen P19 in FP1, Pic P19 and P20 in FP2 and FP3. Van der Garde progressed P21-P20-P19 across the three sessions. All three drivers felt there was work to do on the balance and that the car was twitchy, though it improved as they worked across the sessions. Marussia's practice didn't go so well, as Bianchi managed just eight laps before burying the car in the barriers at the second Degner, wrecking the chassis and keeping him out of FP2. As a result he managed P20 in FP1 and P22 in FP3, struggling to get into the rhythm after his accident. Chilton in the other Marussia finished P22-P21-P21 on his Suzuka debut, and worked to gather all the teams' data with Bianchi out. He was pleased how the balance and pace developed though.
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