Formula One: Red Bull Mark Webber fastest in second Silverstone practice session
The Formula One drivers eventually got on to the Silverstone track for the first time to experience the layout changes. Friday practice uncovered a lot of preparations and speculations that the teams have been making prior to this weekend.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel topped the session setting the fastest time at 1m 32.280s which was about one second slower than his simulation times. Lewis Hamilton, in his exhaust blown diffuser fitted McLaren, set the second fastest time at 1m 32.614s. Kubica was third fastest and only 0.111s slower than Hamilton, marginally leading from Webber at fourth. Sutil was the last driver to finish in 1m 32s as Nico Rosberg set his best time at 1m 33.318s.
The second McLaren could manage the best lap time of 1m 33.519s to grab 8th spot followed by Schumacher in 9th. The slowest time of the session came from HRT’s Sakon Yamamoto who recorded 1m 39.673s. If this were qualifying in 2011, Yamamoto would be watching the race from pits following the 107% rule.
Red Bull gave nothing away on Friday as it was Mark Webber who dominated the second practice session with a lap time of 1m 31.234s. Fernando Alonso closely followed with 0.392s off the leader’s pace. In his next run Vettel was placed third with his best time of 1m 31.875s. The 90-minute long second session proved fruitful for Ferrari as Felipe Massa finished his run behind Vettel lapping his best at 1m 32.099s. Mercedes finished 5th and 6th and Lewis Hamilton, in the best of McLarens claimed 8th spot at 1m 32.757s. Jenson Button finished the session as 13th fastest. Jarno Trulli, in his Lotus, was the slowest man on track setting a time that was 11.667s off Webber’s time.
Red Bulls carried their form in Friday sessions at Silverstone and appeared the quickest of the lot. Ferrari managed a satisfactory performance overall and the team believe that their upgrades worked well. Alonso said that despite an encouraging performance, a lot of improvement has to be made as Red Bulls were a lot quicker and Ferrari need to minimize the gap in qualifying. But the two time world champion is hopeful and believes that it will be very close in qualifying. The Spaniard is also wary of the McLarens and said that despite slow times in practices, McLaren managed to qualify and finish above the Ferraris in Valencia and they will be quicker again later in the weekend.
Hamilton who shrugged off Red Bull’s comments about rivalry with his teammate and faltering under pressure has said that even though McLaren did not perform well so far this weekend, there is a lot more to come from the local manufacturer . He said that despite the one second gap between them and Red Bulls, with right configuration and setup, they will be challenging the Red Bulls in qualifying as there is a lot of improvement in the car since Valencia.
The exhaust upgrades have not worked as many expected but McLaren believe that it always takes time as was the case with Ferrari and Mercedes in Valencia. A bigger concern for McLaren is the speed variation at different corners in Silverstone. The car that is configured to run optimally at high speed corners does not carry ideal setup for slow corners. McLaren, who have a race against time, have been working hard since the practice sessions to improve the pace for qualifying. McLaren have also decided to scrap the exhaust blown diffuser for the rest of the Silverstone weekend as the package was initially intended to be introduced in Hockenheim.
Michael Schumacher has said that the car has shown some improvement since the last race but a judgment about its performance cannot be passed until the qualifying session. Ross Brawn was concerned that they’ve had a good Friday session all through the season but races proved to be a disaster. But he is hopeful that this time things will work out for the team.
While the practices gave us a reasonable idea about what we can expect from the race, the qualifying today will start setting things in place and only then will we get a clear picture of who stands where.
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