Formula 1 Singapore: End of day one

Mark Webber yesterday became a victim of the walls that run alongside the Singapore circuit.

The 32-year old Australian driver, who earlier played down his chances of winning the world championship, hit the wall hard on the inside of the final corner under the lights of the second practice session at Marina Bay. The 90 minutes session, which was topped by his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel, was red flagged to clear the debris and his damaged Renault-powered car.

“I was pushing a little bit too hard in the second practice, it was a bit slippery off line and I went off in the last corner and into the pit wall, which ended my session. The car was going well up until then - I was quick, but both Sebastian and I had pretty good practice sessions,” Webber said. Vettel shared the same sentiment, “It’s a challenging track – quite stop and go – you don’t experience as much G-force here as on other circuits, but there are a lot of bumps, which don’t make your life easy.”

Webber wasn’t the only one who crashed during the free practice run though. Prior to that, Romain Grosjean crashed during the evening practice session. In the opening session one year after Nelson Piquet's deliberate crash, once again an occupant of the second Renault car crashed on the exit of turn 17 - dubbed by some in the paddock as “Piquet Corner”. This time, Grosjean's accident was not on purpose but simply the result of the extremely low-grip surface of that particular section.

The qualifying session will run today, 26th September between 7.00pm to 10.00pm.


[I](Oneshift.com is reporting live from Swissotel The Stamford)[/I]

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