Red Bull's Mark Webber tops Spanish GP Practice, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel round off Top 3
Mark Webber led the charge at the Barcelona circuit, but Lewis Hamilton from McLaren was not far behind. The Brit ran the McLaren car close and made a strong statement ahead of the qualifying session of the Spanish Grand Prix, which will take place on Saturday,
May 21.
Lewis Hamilton impressed one and all with his quick display, and ended between the two Red bulls. The 2008 Champion was 0.039 seconds behind Mark Webber of Red Bull.
McLaren had been working hard on their upgrades and modifications ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix. The performance of Hamilton would have been a really encouraging sign for the British team, and they would be optimistic about their chances in qualifying.
Jenson Button, the other McLaren driver, did not have an equally impressive day, but was not that far behind and finished 4th quickest after the 2nd session of practice. Fernando Alonso from Ferrari managed to settle for 5th
place.
This is a pivotal race in terms of how the season shapes, as all teams have brought new upgrades with them to Barcelona and will be looking to test them out at the Catalonia circuit. The performance of McLaren did suggest clearly that they have got the new
upgrades right, while Ferrari would have to go back to the drawing board and work in double quick time to see what was not right in the practice session.
Hamilton spoke to the reporters after the practice session, "We made some small steps forward today; we improved a couple of small areas. The front wing seems to be a little bit better. Globally it seems to be not too bad."
Hamilton was asked whether he believed that his performance meant his team were much closer to Red Bull. The Britt though brushed away that question by saying he couldn't be sure and alleged Red Bull of deliberately 'under-performing' in the practice sessions.
He said that Red Bull tend to change something at the last minute before the qualifying sessions, and that gives them a second’s advantage over others.
Ferrari had claimed that they got some new upgrades installed that would improve the performance of their car. However, the upgrades didn't do much good for either of the two Ferrari drivers. Fernando Alonso did look good in the first session and posted
some decent lap times, Felipe Massa though looked a bit reluctant to push his Ferrari.
However, as soon as Red Bull and McLaren got going, the Italian team were left in their shadows. There is still time for the former Champions to work on their car, and get it right before qualifying.
Sebastian Vettel has so far won 3 out four races, and is once again dubbed as the favourite to win the Spanish Grand Prix.
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