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Practice 1

Lewis Hamilton was the first driver to set a timed lap and headed the times sheets early in the session. Several drivers came close to beating his effort and Mark Webber eventually did, edging the McLaren by five hundredths of a second. The other McLaren of Jenson Button left it until later in the session before setting his first time. A 1:34.507 put him on top.

Hamilton improved shortly afterwards to put McLaren first and second in the times. Webber ended the session third-quickest following by Nico Rosberg. The Mercedes driver pulled to a stop in the Esses moments before the end of the session with an apparent technical problem.

Michael Schumacher moved up to fifth late in the session, making it four Mercedes-powered cars in the top five. Both Sauber drivers near lost control of their cars during the session. Kamui Kobayashi, sixth, had a moment of oversteer at the exit of Spoon Curve while Sergio Perez, 12th, got onto the run-off at 130R.

Felipe Massa was fastest for Ferrari in seventh, followed by the Force India pair and Pastor Maldonado. Giedo van der Garde made his second appearance in an F1 practice session for Caterham and ended the session 23rd, over a second off team mate Vitaly Petrov.

The Times

1 Jenson Button - 1:34.507 
2 Lewis Hamilton - 1:34.740
3 Mark Webber - 1:34.856
4 Nico Rosberg - 1:35.059 
5 Michael Schumacher - 1:35.122
6 Kamui Kobayashi - 1:35.199 
7 Felipe Massa - 1:35.283
8 Paul di Resta - 1:35.299 
9 Nico Hulkenberg - 1:35.474
10 Pastor Maldonado - 1:35.478
11 Fernando Alonso - 1:35.484
12 Sergio Perez - 1:35.584
13 Kimi Raikkonen - 1:35.691
14 Romain Grosjean - 1:35.724
15 Daniel Ricciardo - 1:36.123
16 Jean-Eric Vergne - 1:36.222
17 Sebastian Vettel - 1:36.366
18 Valtteri Bottas - 1:36.389
19 Timo Glock - 1:37.716
20 Vitaly Petrov - 1:38.295 
21 Charles Pic - 1:38.616
22 Narain Karthikeyan - 1:39.043 
23 Giedo van der Garde - 1:39.374
24 Pedro de la Rosa - 1:39.688

Practice 2

Jenson Button led the way at first before his time was beaten by Romain Grosjean. Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton also took turns at the top before Webber claimed the best time. The session was interrupted soon after it began when Paul di Resta went off at Spoon curve. The Force India driver put his right-hand wheels on the grass approaching the corner and spun into the barrier.

Heikki Kovalainen had made the same mistake moments earlier but got his car back under control on the run-off area. Practice was red-flagged while the Force India was recovered. That left Di Resta unable to complete any further running. Another driver whose session was badly interrupted was Kimi Raikkonen, who experienced a KERS fault on his car. He was able to return to the track late in the session to set a faster lap time.

As in Singapore with Bruno Senna, Raikkonen was told to get out of the car carefully, not touching it while he made contact with the ground, in case it gave him an electric shock. With a quarter of an hour to go in the session Schumacher made much the same mistake as Di Resta with similar consequences – his Mercedes ending up in the barriers at Spoon curve.

As the session came to an end Vitaly Petrov had a fright at the first corner as the rear wing came off his Caterham. Fortunately he spun to a stop without hitting anything.

The Times

1 Mark Webber - 1:32.493 
2 Lewis Hamilton - 1:32.707 
3 Sebastian Vettel - 1:32.836
4 Nico Hulkenberg - 1:32.987 
5 Fernando Alonso - 1:33.093 
6 Romain Grosjean - 1:33.107 
7 Jenson Button - 1:33.349 
8 Bruno Senna - 1:33.499 
9 Felipe Massa - 1:33.614
10 Michael Schumacher - 1:33.750
11 Nico Rosberg - 1:33.866
12 Sergio Perez - 1:33.903
13 Kamui Kobayashi - 1:33.983 
14 Kimi Raikkonen - 1:34.291 
15 Pastor Maldonado - 1:34.300 
16 Daniel Ricciardo - 1:34.863 
17 Jean-Eric Vergne - 1:35.080 
18 Heikki Kovalainen - 1:35.711 
19 Vitaly Petrov - 1:35.870 
20 Timo Glock - 1:36.194 
21 Charles Pic - 1:36.636
22 Pedro de la Rosa - 1:37.342 
23 Narain Karthikeyan - 1:37.701 
24 Paul di Resta - No time