Button tops first practice for F1 Japan Grand Prix
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Buy SPH photosSUZUKA (REUTERS) - McLaren limbered up for the Japanese Grand Prix weekend with Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton one-two at the top of the timesheets after Friday's first free practice in the Suzuka sunshine.
Button, last year's race winner who has a five place grid penalty for Sunday's 15th round of the season due to a gearbox change, lapped with a best time of one minute 34.507 seconds with Hamilton 0.233 seconds slower.
Title contenders McLaren will be chasing a fifth successive pole position on Saturday, the team's best run of qualifying form since 1999 when Finland's Mika Hakkinen chalked up five in a row.
Australian Mark Webber was the third fastest for champions Red Bull around the classic figure-of-eight circuit in an incident-free session at one of the fastest and most demanding tracks.
