Red Bull dominates the first two practices in Suzuka

Red Bull seems to have an edge over everyone else in Japan as its two drivers dominated the first two practice sessions ahead of this weekend’s Japanese GP. Vettel was the quickest on both sessions ahead of his Aussie team-mate. The two drivers were always in front with a comfortable lead, as no one got much closer than 0.6 seconds.

The RB6 was already pointed as a favourite for this weekend’s Grand Prix and confirmed the good pace they showed last year when Vettel came in first at the Suzuka circuit. They will go to tomorrow’s qualifying as the ones to beat.

Hamilton continues his bad moment of the season, as the British driver had a crash on the first practice of the afternoon, which took away his chance of testing the upgrades made on his McLaren for this weekend. Hamilton spent almost the entire practice session time in the boxes, with mechanics fixing his MP4-25.

Hamilton crashed at Degner as he ran slightly wide at the first part of the fast, downhill double right-hander. He then went to the gravel on the second element and hit the barriers with his left front.

His team-mate Jenson Button almost had a similar accident but he managed to prevent his F1 to hit the barriers. In the first practice the Brit wasn’t able to do better than 12th place, but redeemed himself with a 6th place in the second session.

Renault started in a fancy mood in Japan. Kubica was third on both sessions, although not being able to replicate the performance from the Red Bulls. Renault seems to be pulling off good upgrades at the end of the season. Vitaly Petrov had a less consistent run but managed to drive the 7th fastest lap in the second session.

Ferrari had a slow start in Suzuka with the two Ferrari’s not entering the top-10 in the first session. Alonso was only 13th and Massa 11th. In the second session and after a calm run, both drivers showed a better performance, with Alonso taking 4th place ahead of his team-mate.

In opposite direction Williams started strong on the first session with Barrichello and Hulkenberg making the 6th and 7th quickest lap. In the second session Hulkenberg was the 10th quickest, while Barrichello managed only 13th due to an engine issue.

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher was 8th and also faster than his team-mate Nico Rosberg on both sessions. Rosberg was was 10th and 11th on today’s practice sessions.