Massa quickest at the end of day one

Work resumed in earnest in India after the lunch break. With teams eager to gather as much data as possible around the Buddh International Circuit, cars came out of the pitlane as soon as the light went green.

Eleven minutes into the session, the double World Champion Sebastian Vettel was on top of the pack. His teammate Mark Webber was third, with McLaren’s Button splitting the Red Bull pair. Sébastien Buemi was fourth for Toro Rosso, ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Pastor Maldonado once again hit troubles and spun at Turn 9. He stopped on track and couldn’t restart. As the yellow flags were waved during the recovery of the Venezuelan’s Williams, most of the field pitted. Once the track cleared, Buemi and Hamilton could push and improve their lap times, moving up to 2nd and 1st respectively.

The McLaren driver kept hammering around and lowering the benchmark, making the most of his soft tyres. The Red Bull drivers eventually reacted and Vettel reclaimed top spot soon enough.

Towards the midway point, Felipe Massa came out on the softer tyre option but could only manage the fourth quickest time, 0.6s behind Vettel. He stayed out and kept pushing, moving up to 2nd place.

The session was red-flagged shortly after the halfway point, following a heavy crash from d’Ambrosio out of Turn 11. The Belgian driver emerged unscathed but the rear end of his Virgin was seriously damaged.

The action resumed five minutes later. The teams continued to gather tyre data. Lapping on the softer option, Alonso moved up the order and settled in 2nd place – still 0.4s behind Vettel. Massa eventually managed to beat the Red Bull driver, albeit marginally, 15 minutes before the chequered flag.

The final part of the session was dedicated to long runs and saw no major improvements. Massa held on to top spot, 0.088s ahead of Vettel. Alonso was third quickest. Fourth quickest, Hamilton was 0.7s slower than Massa. Webber was fifth, Button sixth. Sutil, Senna, di Resta and Buemi completed the top ten.