His best of one minute 22.716 seconds was half a second quicker than McLaren driver Jenson Button, who had set the best time in the morning at the Catalunya circuit in wet conditions.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Since I wanted this column to hit around the time the Elite Men were coming through, I set it up the night before and hit the publish button from an Apple iPhone as I was sitting up on the railway embankment to get a good view of the runners.

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