evancharley5: Schumacher leads first Monza practice for Mercedes

Friday, September 7, 2012

Schumacher leads first Monza practice for Mercedes | 2012 Italian Grand Prix first practice

Schumacher leads first Monza practice for Mercedes is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.

Amid intense speculation about whether Lewis Hamilton might be about to join Mercedes, Michael Schumacher put the team on top of the times in the first practice session at Monza.

Schumacher comfortably eclipsed the fastest times of the session with a best of 1’25.422. Jenson Button came closest with a 1’25.723, while Nico Rosberg completed a Mercedes-powered top three.

Behind them were the two Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, followed by Hamilton.

Kimi Raikkonen began his session bouncing across the kerbs at turn one. He improved to set the seventh-fastest time for Lotus, but ended the session after an even more spectacular trip across the kerbs, flying into the air at the Roggia chicane.

New team mate Jerome D’Ambrosio, substituting for the banned Romain Grosjean, was 15th fastest.

Two drivers stopped with apparent technical problems at the end of the session: Alonso pulling over at the first chicane and Pastor Maldonado doing the same on the approach to Lesmo 1. The Williams driver inspected the rear of his car, its DRS still open, as he left the scene.

Chinese driver Ma Qing Hua made his first F1 appearance in the session for HRT. He propped up the times sheets with a 1’31.239, 1.9s slower than team mate Pedro de la Rosa.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1’25.422
2	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’25.723	0.301
3	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’25.762	0.340
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’25.800	0.378
5	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’25.881	0.459
6	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1’25.944	0.522
7	9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus-Renault	1’26.046	0.624
8	15	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’26.323	0.901
9	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’26.390	0.968
10	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1’26.504	1.082
11	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’26.508	1.086
12	12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1’26.518	1.096
13	19	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	1’26.641	1.219
14	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1’26.746	1.324
15	10	Jerome D’Ambrosio	Lotus-Renault	1’27.180	1.758
16	11	Jules Bianchi	Force India-Mercedes	1’27.192	1.770
17	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’27.373	1.951
18	17	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’27.789	2.367
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1’27.855	2.433
20	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1’28.578	3.156
21	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1’28.751	3.329
22	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1’29.207	3.785
23	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1’29.331	3.909
24	23	Ma Qing Hua	HRT-Cosworth	1’31.239	5.817