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GPUpdate
Sutil leads first practice in Bahrain
12 March 2010The Force India of Adrian Sutil set the fastest lap time as the first practice session of the 2010 season commenced in Bahrain on Friday. The German driver led the way from the two Ferraris, Robert Kubica's Renault and the pair of McLaren cars as 7-time World Champion Michael Schumacher rounded out the top ten and the Hispania Racing team completed its first ever laps.
It was a much-awaited first practice session of the year which began at 10am local time at Sakhir on Friday, with Bahrain hosting the opening round of the World Championship for the first time since 2006. Thankfully for all teams, it was a completely incident-free session which featured not a single yellow flag period.
Jarno Trulli's Lotus was the first to exit the pits as the green light signalled the start of the action. With the help of team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, the 1Malaysia squad notched up a total of 36 laps as it aims to record as much mileage of possible over the course of this year's first four Grands Prix. Fellow debutants Virgin Racing lapped the extended track just ten times, with Lucas di Grassi yet to set a flying lap this weekend, although Timo Glock's best was quicker than Lotus.
There was an emotional moment for the Senna family as Bruno, nephew of late 3-time Champion Ayrton, completed the first ever lap for Hispania Racing before running two addition installation runs towards the end of the 90-minute period. With the team having confirmed its entry late and signed Karun Chandhok last week, there were not even seats on the pit wall for first practice as the Indian's car remained in the garage.
At the sharp end, Ferrari and McLaren led the timesheets early on as ambient temperatures of 29°C (84°F) were easily beaten by those of the track, which topped highs of 44°C (111°F) as the session went on. It was the Force India of Adrian Sutil which made the early running, though, heading Alonso by 3 tenths of a second before the Spaniard's Ferrari moved to within just under 2 tenths. The German's best effort of 1:56.585 was in stark contrast to the slowest time of Trulli, which was 7.3 seconds down although each team's individual practice plans are unknown.
There were no stoppages for any car although the Toro Rosso of Sébastien Buemi returned to the pit land slowly and Lucas di Grassi's Virgin appeared to be pushed back into its garage from several metres further down the pit lane. Several cars also ran wide at Turn 8 in the new section although the vast amounts of tarmac run-off areas ensured that no damage was picked up.
The second 90-minute practice begins at 2pm local time in Bahrain (GMT +3)
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