GREATER NOIDA: The wait is over, the action has begun. On a Friday of great expectations, as F1 roared into life in India, reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel found himself forced into second position in successive practice sessions. If the opening act in the morning was about, apart from stray dogs, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, it was Felipe Massa who owned the afternoon, clocking 1 minute 25.706 seconds — the fastest lap time of the day as drivers adapted to the virgin Buddh International Circuit.
Clocking 1 minute 26.836 seconds, 2008 champion Hamilton might have outpaced Vettel by more than half a second in the opening session, but the 26-year-old Englishman spoiled his own script with his sixth penalty of the season and, along with Sauber’s Sergio Perez, he has been penalised with a drop of three grid positions for Sunday’s race after ignoring double yellow flags — a stark warning for drivers to slow down. In that this compromised the safety of marshals who were in close proximity to the track when they zipped past, and motor-sport is still in mourning following the recent deaths of Dan Wheldon in an IndyCar event and Marco Simoncelli in MotoGP, the drivers were bound to run foul of the stewards.
Although he would have considered himself Vettel’s most potent challenger for pole, after claiming such a position for the first time in 27 races in South Korea barely two weeks ago, Hamilton has opened the door further for the German to press for an F1 record. With 12 pole positions to his name in 2011, Vettel is just two behind Nigel Mansell’s 1992 mark and his team — Red Bull — needs one more top spot in the qualifying session to set a new record of 16 in a single season. That Hamilton, who recently split from his Pussycat Dolls girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger, finished fourth in the second session was but the final blow in what was a miserable day for him.
If there was one man who emerged smiling, it was Massa, who upset the form book even as the circuit claimed a number of victims in its first tryst with hot wheels. The right rear wheel of Virgin’s Jerome d’Ambrosio was ripped off after he slid out and crashed into a barrier; Williams’ Pastor Maldonado was thrust out of the opening session after his car started spewing smoke and his second stint on the track ended in a gravel trap after he lost control; Michael Schumacher spun his Mercedes; and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, suffering engine failure, had to sit out the last half hour.
Such incidents notwithstanding, it was a historic day for Indian motor-sport, the colours of the national flag blooming in the sun. Indeed, the first car to emerge from the pitlane was the saffron- white-green machine of Sahara Force India driven by Adrian Sutil, who was followed Team Lotus’ Karun Chandhok deputising for Heikki Kovalainen, Paul di Resta in another Sahara Force India car, and Narain Karthikeyan in his Hispania Racing automobile. Chandhok, though he will not race on Sunday, set the first timed lap. Over the next few days, Vijay Mallya’s words — “it is an emotional moment for all of us” — will acquire palpable meaning.