• British Grand Prix

Webber maintains Red Bull form

ESPNF1 Staff
July 9, 2010
Mark Webber continued Red Bull's impressive start © Getty Images
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Mark Webber consolidated Red Bull's impressive start to the British Grand Prix weekend by setting the quickest time of Friday's second free practice session.

The Australian, who finished the first session fourth fastest, clocked a quickest time of 1:31.234s to top the timesheets from Fernando Alonso and team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Webber was the first man to dip under the 1:32 barrier just before the first half hour, with team-mate Vettel only marginally slower. Webber lowered the mark yet further to cement his position at the top, although he sat out of the final half hour of the session after an unexplained warning light came up on his steering wheel.

McLaren failed to set a competitive lap time as its two drivers focused on testing its new upgrades. In doing so it concealed its ultimate pace, although Lewis Hamilton was consistently faster than team-mate Jenson Button. The home fans will have to wait until Saturday's qualifying session before they get a true indication of the team's competitiveness.

In contrast, Ferrari had a strong afternoon run with Felipe Massa finishing fourth quickest ahead of the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. However, Schumacher appeared to be struggling throughout the session, making mistakes in slow-speed corners, and finishing nearly 0.5 seconds adrift of his team-mate.

But Schumacher wasn't the only one struggling to get to grips with the track. Hamilton spun several times in the Maggots, Becketts, Chapel complex and Vettel lost control at both Stowe and Abbey. The new sections of the circuit saw a number of smaller mistakes from drivers up and down the field, promising an action-packed race if the trend continues through to Sunday.

Vitaly Petrov, Adrain Sutil and Rubens Barrichello all featured in the top ten as their respective teams, Renault, Force India and Williams look closely matched behind the front runners. Robert Kubica could only manage the 11th fastest time, but showed plenty of potential in the morning session and should be on for another solid weekend.

At the back of the field, Sakon Yamamoto - replacing Bruno Senna at HRT this weekend - was seven seconds off the pace of Webber and over a second off his team-mate Karun Chandhok. However, Jarno Trulli was even slower as he completed just three laps and spent the majority of the session in the Lotus garage with his car in pieces. It could be a tough weekend for the team from Norfolk as Heikki Kovalainen had to park his car on track at the end of the session with a power steering failure.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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