Red Bull’s Mark Webber tops first free practice session of the Valencia Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
Red Bull Formula 1 driver Mark Webber has topped the first free practice session of the Valencia Grand Prix of the 2011 Formula 1 season.
The Aussie driver posted the fastest time of 1 minute and 40.403 seconds while completing 22 laps in a trouble free first session. However surprisingly, Webber’s teammate, Sebastian Vettel was down in 16th place almost 2.5 seconds adrift of the
fastest lap.
It is believed that Red Bull opted to run Silverstone specifications in their car which is without Blown Diffuser but it has still not been confirmed by the Red Bull team. Vettel was the first driver out on track in the session but mostly stayed low on the
table.
The second fastest lap came from Renault’s Vitaly Petrov. The Russian was able to post a time of 1 minute and 41.227 seconds in the final moments of the session. Petrov’s teammate, Nick Heidfeld, also had a good day in his R31 and finished fifth on the table.
Homeboy Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was third on the table almost a second adrift but hopefully for the Spanish crowd it will change in the qualifiers and race. The Spaniard’s teammate Felipe Massa was sixth on the table with 23 laps under his belt.
McLaren’s duo Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button had another slow start to the weekend and were fourth and seventh on the table more than one second off the pace of Webber.
Adrian Sutil made an entry in the top ten drivers and ended the session in eighth position.
Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher had a good outing in Valencia except for the fastest lap. Rosberg ended ninth and Schumacher ended eleventh on the table. However, both Germans did bag some laps which will give them some useful data ahead
of the race.
Completing the top ten drivers was Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari. The second free practice session will be held in the evening on Friday, June 24, 2011.
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