Button takes over in rain as Vettel crashes out

Defending champion Sebastian Vettel was unhurt and unfazed about his prospects yesterday after a major crash during practice ahead of tomorrow’s Turkish Grand Prix.

On a day of heavy rain followed by dry conditions, Briton Jenson Button, the 2009 champion, topped the afternoon times for McLaren after Spanish two-time champion Fernando Alonso had dominated the rain-hit morning for Ferrari.

Button clocked a best lap of one minute and 26.456 seconds at the Istanbul Park to outpace Nico Rosberg, of Mercedes, and the 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton in the second McLaren.

But it was the sight of leader Vettel, 23, in his jeans and watching from the sidelines that overshadowed the day, his shunt in the final 15 minutes of morning practice having wrecked his Red Bull car.

Vettel, winner of the opening two races of the season, lost control on a kerb at Turn Eight and went into the barriers at high speed, tearing off the front wing of his car and damaging all four wheels and other parts.

He was completely uninjured and walked away, later saying that he was not at all upset at sitting out the afternoon session.

Vettel said: “It makes it a bit more difficult, no doubt, but I don’t think it will be a problem (for the race).

“We know the track quite well from the past years and in the end it was only one afternoon we had in the dry. We’ll see. I’m still confident... everything is open.”

He added that he had apologised to his mechanics for the damage he caused, but stressed the most important thing was that he was not hurt.

Vettel’s Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber was fifth fastest in the session behind Michael Schumacher, who was fourth for Mercedes.

Vettel will rely on Webber’s work and data to set his car up for qualifying today.

Webber said: “For sure there will be a lot of stuff he will be looking at overnight, it’s normal when someone has a rough day that he tries to see what we can do from the other side of the garage.”

Button said he was satisfied by his performance.

“We were reasonably happy with the balance, but there’s more that we need to find to look after the tyres in a race situation,” he said.