Free Practice 1 – Rosberg, once again ahead of Hamilton and Trulli

On this first weekend of June, the Turkish Grand Prix is on the calendar. As every Friday, the ten Formula 1 teams conduct their first practice sessions. In the morning, it’s Nico Rosberg with his FW31 (Williams) who sets the fastest time of this first test session on the Istanbul Park circuit. With ideal conditions, he leads ahead of Lewis Hamilton for McLaren and Jarno Trulli (Toyota).

The German is leading a session for the tenth time since the start of the season (out of 19 so far). He therefore beat the reigning world champion, Lewis Hamilton, in the final seconds after the Briton had held the top spot for a large part of the practice sessions.

The track was very dirty at the beginning, so much so that plumes of dust were visible behind the cars during their installation laps. It took a long time before a driver set a lap time.

The first to do it was Lewis Hamilton after more than 30 minutes into the 90-minute session. He set an initial time of 1:33.992. But he consistently improved it with a lap of 1:32.205 on his subsequent laps.

Several drivers joined him on this bumpy and still green circuit. Consequently, several of them quickly left the track at various points but without apparent damage.

Jarno Trulli shows the potential of his Toyota in Turkey as he is the fastest at mid-race, but he was quickly dethroned by Kazuki Nakajima in the Williams.

The Japanese driver remained the leader for five minutes before Felipe Massa took his place with Ferrari. But he was also swept aside by Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull, then Hamilton once again reclaimed his position as the favorite.

While there are only 18 minutes left, Massa takes back the lead before going wide at turn 1, just like several other drivers before. In doing so, he tears off a part of the synthetic grass lining the curbs. This led to a red flag. The session was thus interrupted for a few moments to remove the piece.

This stop allowed everyone to return to the pits to come out better and set off to challenge Hamilton’s time. He even improved it to 1:29.263, but it was not enough because, as usual, Rosberg waited until the last moment to seize first place with a 1:28.952.

Trulli finishes third in front of Vettel, Massa is fifth, and Nakajima sixth. Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari), Fernando Alonso (Renault), Rubens Barrichello (Brawn GP), and Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren) complete the top ten. The world championship leader, Jenson Button, finishes 11th in front of a surprising Sutil (Force India), Timo Glock (Toyota), Nelson Piquet (Renault), and Mark Webber (Red Bull). Then we find the two BMW drivers testing their new aerodynamic package, followed by Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India) and the two Toro Rosso drivers.

As for the run-offs, we will remember those of Glock, Fisichella, Massa, and Vettel, while many other drivers got caught out at turns 1, 4, and 8.

Free Practice 1 Results – Turkish GP – Friday, June 5, 2009: