Button out in front early on as Virgin encounter problems

Jenson Button grabbed the spoils in a second practice session for tomorrow’s Turkish Grand Prix notable by the absence of Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel was forced to watch the 90-minute afternoon run from the Red Bull garage as his mechanics were unable to repair in time the car he smashed in the morning outing at the Istanbul Park circuit.

The 23-year-old paid the penalty for a rare mistake in what has so far been a near-perfect season with two wins and a second from his three poles in the opening three grands prix.

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On a wet track, the first time rain has hit the circuit during a grand prix weekend since it made its debut in 2005, Vettel did nothing more than run a little wide on the exit of the infamous turn eight, a triple-apex left-hander that exerts forces of 5g on the body.

That was enough to send the Red Bull star spinning across the track before slamming into a barrier, severely damaging the front and right-hand side of his car.

It leaves Vettel with just 60 minutes of running in today’s final session to acclimatise himself to the circuit before the qualifying showdown.

“There wasn’t much I could do to stop the car from hitting the wall this morning, but the most important thing is I’m fine,” said Vettel.

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Although too much can never be read into Friday’s times, McLaren at least appear to be in reasonable shape as Button and Lewis Hamilton finished first and third, separated by 0.577secs.

Button’s best lap of one minute 26.456secs was a fraction quicker than Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes, with Hamilton then followed by Michael Schumacher as Mercedes locked out the top four spots.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber was a steady fifth, and as always there is undoubtedly the suggestion of more to come from the reigning world champion, with the Australian 0.693secs adrift.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was sixth and Britain’s Paul di Resta eighth in the Force India.

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The bottom four places were occupied by the two Marussia Virgin Racing cars of Jerome D’Ambrosio and Timo Glock and the Hispanias of Narain Karthikeyan and Vitantonio Liuzzi, with the quartet all recording times in the one minute 31s.

Glock and D’Ambrosio arrived in Turkey with a new performance upgrade on the Virgin car but were more than two seconds adrift of the teams vying for a spot in second qualifying today.

Team principal John Booth said: “The elements of the upgrade package that we fitted to Jérôme’s car have performed well, so we’re pleased with the progress there.

“Timo’s car, with the full package, was always going to be a bigger ‘ask’ because of the complexity of the car at the rear with the new blown exhaust system.

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“It is always difficult coming straight into a race weekend with such a new and complicated package and with no testing to optimise it. As we predicted there have been a few issues to contend with, particularly with the management of the heat from the exhausts. Generally we’ve made a good start on Jérôme’s side but we have yet to realise the full performance potential of the wider package with Timo.”

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