Formula One news

Webber tops first Brazilian practice

Red Bull's Mark Webber led the way as a rain-interrupted practice kicked off the penultimate 2009 race weekend in Brazil. Title contenders Rubens Barrichello and Sebastian Vettel also made the top three as the second Brawn of championship leader Jenson Button completed the 90-minute period in seventh position.             

With only the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix remaining on the calendar this season, Jenson Button and his Brawn GP team could seal both championship titles this weekend as Formula One makes its annual pilgrimage to São Paulo. Although no rain was predicted for the first hour, weather forecasts soon proved to be inaccurate.

Local favourite Rubens Barrichello finished second to Mark Webber

As the first shower arrived just short of the 40-minute mark, drivers attempted as many dry laps as possible in order to analyse settings such as gear ratios at full RPM before the track became damp. With a heavy but brief shower eventually blowing over, Romain Grosjean did the field no favours when running wide on the exit of Mergulho, ploughing through the polystyrene 100m marker board to leave debris coating the track surface.

With the red flags flying, yet more dry running time was lost. Once the session did restart, however, several drivers found themselves being caught out on a slippery off-line race track; Rubens Barrichello spun the Brawn on the exit of Bico do Pato, Fernando Alonso's Renault went straight on at the Senna S and Sébastien Buemi narrowly avoided the back of Tonio Liuzzi at Laranjina, only to spin backwards into the wall and remove the right-rear wheel of the Toro Rosso.

Buemi ended his session for Toro Rosso in the wall

Webber eventually pulled out the fastest lap time of the morning on 1:12.463, comfortably ahead of local favourite Barrichello, with Sebastien Vettel third in the second Red Bull as track temperatures eventually reached highs of 28°C (82°F).

Both KERS-shod McLarens achieved top five positions, with Kovalainen ahead of Lewis Hamilton once again in practice, as championship leader Jenson Button struggled to put together a clean lap in the closing minutes of the session before winding up seventh.


The second session in Brazil begins at 2pm local time (BST -4 / GMT -3).

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