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Red Bull 'still learning' - Webber

ESPNF1 Staff
February 23, 2012 « McLaren closer to Red Bull this year - Button | Ferrari 'definitely better' at this test - Massa »
Mark Webber's best time of 1:24.771 was identical to that of Felipe Massa © Getty Images
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Red Bull is "still learning plenty" about the new RB8 after Mark Webber had his morning running limited by a gearbox problem.

Webber completed only 26 laps before lunch after a prolonged spell in the Red Bull garage, but recovered to bring the total up to 97 by the end of the day. The afternoon running focused around a race simulation, however, so Webber's best time was only good enough for sixth quickest. He admitted that more running would have been helpful, but said the afternoon's laps gave the team good information about the car.

"All in all, it wasn't a bad day at all," Webber said. "Not the smoothest of morning's and we didn't get too many laps done there, but in the afternoon the race simulation went OK. We're still learning plenty.

"It would have been nice to have done a few more laps, but I think everyone always wants to get 20 or 30 more and, even with the problem this morning, there were loads of positives to look at. We're a very ambitious team, so we'll keep working on that."

Head of race engineering Ian Morgan added that even the race simulation was cut short due to a potential problem that eventually turned out to be a false alarm.

"Mark only got a handful of laps in before we had a problem with the gearbox. But whereas it didn't set us back too much yesterday, today needed more time. Mark then went out for his race simulation this afternoon a bit cold, but he managed to put a whole race distance on and the gearbox ran flawlessly. We stopped a couple of laps earlier than planned because we saw something in the data, but in the end it was nothing. So, while we had a limited morning, the afternoon was a pretty good recovery."

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