Alonso’s lead in the standings has been whittled down to just 24 points by Red
Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, but with the Milton Keynes-based team again
appearing to struggle for initial pace.
Vettel and team-mate Mark Webber were 11th and 13th, 0.814secs and 1.104secs
behind Hamilton, sandwiching Grosjean’s replacement in Jerome D’Ambrosio.
Competing in the Lotus for the first time this season, and in an F1 car since
being dropped by Virgin Racing – now Marussia – at the end of last year, the
Belgian produced a credible display.
D’Ambrosio found himself 0.867secs behind Hamilton, but more comparatively was
just 0.653secs off of more illustrious team-mate Kimi Raikkonen who was
sixth quickest.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was fourth behind his own team-mate in Alonso, with
Nico Rosberg fifth for Mercedes.
Force India pair Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg were seventh and eighth,
with the top eight covered by a fraction over a quarter of a second such was
the tight-knit nature of the 90-minute session.
Sauber’s Sergio Perez was then over half a second adrift in ninth ahead of
Michael Schumacher in his Mercedes, the 43-year-old rounding out the top 10,
0.8secs down.
As per usual, HRT pair Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan propped up the
standings over three seconds down.
In first practice, Karthikeyan had given way to Ma Qing Hua, the 26-year-old
becoming the first driver from China to take part in a F1 weekend.