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Practice 1

The session got off to a quiet start as drivers discovered the circuit was low on grip during their installation runs. The Red Bull drivers didn’t set times until more than half the session had been completed. Mark Webber’s second effort was enough to put him quickest, and he later improved to a 1:28.229. With just over a quarter of an hour left in the session Hamilton persuaded his engineer to let him do an extra lap at the end of his run, feeling there was more pace in the car. He turned out to be right, producing a 1:28.046 to top the times.

It didn’t take long for Red Bull to reassert themselves but this time it was Vettel on top, edging Hamilton’s time by a hundredth of a second. With less than two minutes remaining Vettel stretched his advantage, setting a 1:27.619 to move four-tenths of a second clear of Alonso and Hamilton.

Button posted a late improvement with a 1:27.929 putting him in second place. Nico Rosberg was sixth for Mercedes with Daniel Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso also appearing in the top ten.

Esteban Gutierrez took Sergio Perez’s place for the session as the Sauber driver is unwell. “This should help Sergio’s speedy recovery so he is able to drive for the remainder of the weekend,” the team said in a statement. Gutierrez had a near-miss with the barrier at turn nine and ended the session 20th.

The Times

1 Sebastian Vettel - 1:27.619 
2 Jenson Button - 1:27.929 
3 Fernando Alonso - 1:28.044 
4 Lewis Hamilton - 1:28.046 
5 Mark Webber - 1:28.175
6 Nico Rosberg - 1:28.447
7 Felipe Massa - 1:28.542
8 Michael Schumacher - 1:28.993 
9 Daniel Ricciardo - 1:29.204
10 Kimi Raikkonen - 1:29.291 
11 Valtteri Bottas - 1:29.691 
12 Paul di Resta - 1:29.760 
13 Kamui Kobayashi - 1:29.802 
14 Nico Hulkenberg - 1:29.850 
15 Romain Grosjean - 1:29.895 
16 Pastor Maldonado - 1:30.041
17 Jean-Eric Vergne - 1:30.401 
18 Vitaly Petrov - 1:30.630 
19 Giedo van der Garde - 1:30.896 
20 Esteban Gutierrez - 1:31.212 
21 Charles Pic - 1:31.903
22 Narain Karthikeyan - 1:32.125
23 Timo Glock - 1:32.369
24 Pedro de la Rosa - 1:32.859

Practice 2

The second practice session got underway with the slippery track conditions still catching out several drivers in the early part of the session. Felipe Massa was the first to spin sideways at the exit of turn 11, flat-spotting his tyres. That caused some concern at Ferrari, who asked Massa if he would still be able to do his planned constant speed aerodynamic test. He carried on, complaining of tyre vibrations.

Moments latest Romain Grosjean spun at the same corner and Bruno Senna had a low-speed spin at turn three. Vettel claimed back the top time until the drivers began using the softer tyres. Kimi Raikkonen took over with a quickest lap of 1:27.030 in the Lotus.

Massa had another spin on his soft tyres and Alonso had to dodge around his team mate on his way to setting third fastest time. Massa blamed a balance problem on his car but having ruined both his hard and soft tyres, limited him to doing just practice starts instead of a race simulation run at the end of the session.

Alonso briefly took over at the top of the times but the Red Bulls showed their hand soon afterwards. Webber beat Alonso’s time by almost half a second and Vettel lowered the best time by a further tenth of a second.

McLaren struggled to produce any performance on the softer tyres. Hamilton could do no better than sixth behind Rosberg and Raikkonen.

The Times

1 Sebastian Vettel - 1:26.221
2 Mark Webber - 1:26.339
3 Fernando Alonso - 1:26.820
4 Nico Rosberg - 1:27.022 
5 Kimi Raikkonen - 1:27.030
6 Lewis Hamilton - 1:27.131 
7 Jenson Button - 1:27.182
8 Nico Hulkenberg - 1:27.233 
9 Romain Grosjean - 1:27.397
10 Bruno Senna - 1:27.738
11 Paul di Resta - 1:28.004
12 Sergio Perez - 1:28.178 
13 Michael Schumacher - 1:28.222
14 Daniel Ricciardo - 1:28.239
15 Felipe Massa - 1:28.296
16 Kamui Kobayashi - 1:28.455
17 Pastor Maldonado - 1:28.596 
18 Jean-Eric Vergne - 1:29.167
19 Heikki Kovalainen - 1:29.320
20 Vitaly Petrov - 1:29.606
21 Pedro de la Rosa - 1:30.950
22 Timo Glock - 1:31.113
23 Narain Karthikeyan - 1:31.372 
24 Charles Pic - 1:31.493