Mark Webber dominates first practice session of Malaysian Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
Red Bull driver Mark Webber dominated the first practice of the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang on Friday morning.
The Australian driver was quick throughout the session and set the track on fire with a lightning fast lap time of 1 minute and 37.651 seconds.
There were a lot of eyebrows raised over the form of Webber after the Formula 1 2011 season opener at Melbourne in Australia. The local favourite failed to live up to the expectations of his home crowd and finished the race in fifth place behind Ferrari’s
Fernando Alonso.
Compared to Webber, his teammate Sebastian Vettel had a dominant start to his title-defending year. The young German was quick throughout the practice and qualifying sessions and won the race comfortably.
However, Friday was not an ideal day for the reigning champion. He only managed to set the 17th fastest lap of the session. He was trying to get used to all the systems in his car, but would be disappointed with his effort.
McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton has been consistent since the start of the season and continued his form on Friday. The British driver clocked the second fastest lap time of the session, but was more than one and a half seconds behind the time of the Red Bull
driver.
The surprise of the session came from the seven-time Formula 1 champion, Michael Schumacher of Mercedes GP. The veteran had a poor start to the season as he had numerous issues with his car in Australia. However, he came back strongly with the third fastest
time of the practice session on Friday. The veteran driver would be pleased with his performance, as he was only the third driver who clocked below the 1 minute 40 second barrier.
Force India’s test driver Nico Hulkenberg also had a consistent session, as he was overall the fourth fastest. He was followed by Williams’ rookie Pastor Maldonado and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.
Fernando Alonso did not have an ideal day, as he finished only ninth fastest in the day. He would be eying an improvement in the second practice session, which will start shortly. Apart from him, McLaren’s Jenson Button also had a terrible session, as he
only managed the 15th fastest time.
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