Practice 2: Webber fastest from Alonso

22 July, 2011

Mark Webber ended day one at Nurburgring fastest of all

Jul.22 (PVM) Mark Webber showed a strong turn of pace, in the latter half of the second practice session of the German Grand Prix weekend, to set the fastest time of the opening day at the wheel of the Red Bull RB7.

Fernando Alonso ended the day second quickest

The Australian powered around the Nurburgring, under gloomy and rain threatening skies, in a time of 1 minute 31.711 seconds – which was half second faster than his pole winning time at the same venue in 2009 – which also happened to be the first race win of Webber’s Formula 1 career.

Trailing Webber by only 0.168 seconds was Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso followed by local hero Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa in the other Ferrari setting the third fourth best times respectively.

Once again, as in the morning session, the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers filled the top four slots on the timing screens at the end of the 90 minute session.

Red Bull was quick as has become expected, but good news for fans is that they might not be as dominant as earlier in the season because Ferrari showed that their Silverstone form was not a flash in the pan.

They look up for a fight, particularly Alonso who has been bullish throughout the build-up to this race weekend.

Jenson Button was well down the order

Massa too has spent quite sometime in the doldrums but of late appears to at least be close to his Spanish team mates pace and perhaps able to get in the mix for a shot at the podium.

Behind the two pace setting teams the form book is a little blurred.

McLaren are obvious contenders but Silverstone was a disaster by their high standards and the final session on the opening day hardly smile inducing for the Woking squad.

Lewis Hamilton finished the session seventh and his team mate Jenson Button down in 11th – hardly inspirational unless McLaren are keeping their powder dry for when required, because the one second deficit Hamilton has to Webber is huge, with Button 1.5 seconds down on the Aussie’s best.

Thus fastest of the Mercedes powered brigade were the Silver Arrows on home soil with their two German drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg finishing the session fifth and sixth respectively.

Michael Schumacher was fifth fastest

Much interest focussed on the Renault pair as the R31s were running with very different exhaust configurations, with Nick Heidfeld ending the day eighth fastest with their new (conventional) rear blowing exhaust. Vitaly Petrov in the front blowing version was ninth fastest, only fractionally down on his team mate.

Adrian Sutil was tenth fastest in the Force India with team mate Paul di Resta 12th best.

At the foot of the timing sheets, without setting a time, was Sebastien Buemi whose Ferrari powered Toro Rosso developed a misfire which the team decided to sort out during the session.

Lotus debutant Karun Chandhok closed the gap to team mate Heikki Kovalainen from around 2.5 seconds to 1.5 seconds during the course of the day.

Friday, July 22 – Practice 2 Results

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull	1:31.711		34
2	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:31.879	0.168	38
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:32.084	0.373	28
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:32.354	0.643	36
5	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1:32.411	0.700	31
6	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1:32.557	0.846	32
7	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	1:32.724	1.013	28
8	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1:33.098	1.387	17
9	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:33.138	1.427	22
10	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India	1:33.211	1.500	34
11	4	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:33.225	1.514	17
12	15	Paul di Resta	Force India	1:33.299	1.588	34
13	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber	1:34.113	2.402	34
14	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams	1:34.344	2.633	34
15	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso	1:34.487	2.776	37
16	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	1:34.491	2.780	35
17	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1:34.996	3.285	35
18	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus	1:35.753	4.042	42
19	24	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing	1:36.940	5.229	32
20	21	Karun Chandhok	Lotus	1:37.248	5.537	33
21	25	Jerome d’Ambrosio	Virgin Racing	1:37.313	5.602	33
22	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT	1:38.145	6.434	31
23	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT	1:40.737	9.026	5
24	18	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso	No time		3