Free 1: Brawn at the forefront

It is at the end of the day that the first free practice session in Singapore begins, as daylight falls. As traditionally, the single-seaters showing up on the track are few in number. Some pilots carry out their installation tour then Toro Rosso are the first to appear on the score sheet. Sébastien Buemi (1?53??757) even dominates the ranking for a good while.

Mark Webber then takes over (1), before seriously improving (53) and Jenson Button steals the best time (076). It is then Romain Grosjean which stands out. The pilot Renault spins into turn no. 17, the same corner where Nelson Piquet Jr voluntarily went to hit in 2008 to promote the victory of Fernando Alonso. Like last year, it took a while to remove the R29 and the session was stopped for twelve minutes.

Half an hour from the end of the session, Heikki Kovalainen provisionally took the best time, before the Brawn GP drivers put on the show. At ease on low-speed circuits, the single-seaters of Brackley prove that they are candidates for victory on the Malaysian Peninsula circuit. Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello exchanged the best time on several occasions, before the Brazilian obtained it definitively in 1:50:179, ahead of his teammate. Mark Webber (Red Bull) is at the forefront and Fernando Alonso proves that he is at ease on urban tracks. It is therefore in the dark of night that this session ends, two hours before the start of the next session.