Greater Noida, 25 October

Everything went smoothly for Scuderia Ferrari in this afternoon’s practice session at the Buddh International Circuit. A dry track and smoggy skies provided the backdrop to a busy programme which saw Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa complete 39 and 41 laps respectively. The Spaniard was fifth fastest in 1.26.430, while the Brazilian was seventh in 1.26.601.
In under two hours the engineers identified and solved the gearbox problem which stopped Alonso in the morning, so that he was able to complete the full session. He did his first 7 lap run on Mediums. Massa did 10 laps in the first half hour, also on Mediums. The Spaniard made his second run on the same set for another 7 laps, getting down to a 1.27.598. He thus made up for the time lost in FP1 before going out on the Softs for a qualifying simulation, lapping in 1.26.430 on his first flying lap. Massa had done a 1.26.601 on the Option at the end of his second flying lap. The last 40 minutes were given over to the usual long runs with Massa and Alonso alternating between the two compounds, acquiring valuable data on different fuel loads.