Massa leads the way in free practice for Indian Grand Prix

Oct 28, 2011, 11:24 GMT

New Delhi - Ferrari's Felipe Massa led the way in Friday's free practice for Sunday's inaugural Indian Grand Prix.

The Brazilian posted a time of one minute 25.706 seconds, beating world champion Sebastian Vettel in a Red Bull into second place by 0.088 seconds.

Massa's team-mate Fernando Alonso was third fastest, followed by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber in the second Red Bull and McLaren's Jenson Button.

In the morning session Hamilton had the distinction of being the first driver to set an official fastest lap at the Budd International Circuit on the outskirts of New Delhi.

The Briton needed 1:26.836 seconds for a lap on the 5.137km circuit in Friday's first free practice session.

There was some bad news for Hamilton though as he later received a three-place penalty after ignoring a double-yellow flag in the first session.

He was penalized by stewards for ignoring the yellow flags which were waved towards the end of the session after Williams' Pastor Maldonado had to stop his car on the track after an engine blow-up.

Sauber's Sergio Perez will also start the race three places behind his qualifying position after being found guilty of the same offence, while Renault's Vitaly Petrov goes into the qualifying with a five-place penalty after crashing into Mercedes' Michael Schumacher in the last race.