EL2: Button in the lead, Ferrari behind

With the test of the soft tires on the Catalunya circuit, Jenson Button set the benchmark time of the day with a short lead over Sebastian Vettel. After a good outing in the morning, Ferrari appears further behind this afternoon.

Published on 11/05/2012 à 16:13

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Jenson Button (McLaren) suffered from understeer with the hard tires at the start of the session. But the Woking team seems to have solved this problem since the 2009 world champion set the best time of the day with a time of 1'23"399. The Briton is a tenth ahead of the RB8 of Sebastian Vettel and three tenths the Mercedes W03 by Nico Rosberg. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) follows with five tenths behind the two Lotus drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean. In addition to being at the forefront on a flying lap, the E20s showed very good pace on the long stints completed at the end of the session.

Mark Webber (Red Bull) and Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) finish six tenths ahead Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) and Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) who complete the top ten by finishing less than a second from the best time of the day. The pilots Ferrari are further behind than this morning since Felipe Massa is 11th more than a second while Fernando Alonso only signs the 14th time. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) ranks 16th just ahead of his teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Charles Pic (Marussia) finished in 22nd place, three tenths behind his teammate Timo Glock.

The final free practice session will take place tomorrow at 11 a.m. before the drivers battle in qualifying from 14 p.m.