Webber fastest in practice for British GP
Posted July 8, 2011 3:15 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SILVERSTONE, England — Mark Webber was fastest in rain-blighted practice for the British Grand Prix on Friday, signalling another weekend of Red Bull domination in the Formula One championship at Silverstone.
Chasing a second successive victory here, the Australian posted a quickest lap of one minute 46.603 seconds in the soggy morning session, two-thirds of a second faster than Michael Schumacher.
The first half of the afternoon session was effectively wiped out by even heavier rain in central England and while Ferrari’s Felipe Massa set the pace, his lap was more than three seconds slower than Webber’s in the morning.
“I think everybody expected this weather today — it looks a bit better for tomorrow and Sunday,” Webber said. “It’s normal for Silverstone to have difficult conditions, as the rain showers come fast and the wind is high, so the conditions can change quite quickly.”
Webber was six seconds slower in the second session. Although championship leader Sebastian Vettel was more than two seconds slower than his Red Bull teammate overall, the German restricted his time on the track.
Winning six of the opening eight races has given Vettel a 77-point lead over Jenson Button and Webber, while Red Bull has an 89-point lead in the constructors’ championship over the McLaren outfit of Button and Lewis Hamilton.
“Today was quite frustrating because the constantly changing weather and track conditions made it difficult to gather any meaningful comparative data on the new components and new engine modes we’d brought to this race,” McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said.
Last year’s British GP was marred for Red Bull by an internal dispute, but Webber believes his relationship with Vettel is better this season — due to his failure to win a race.
“The harmony is perfect when the results are like this — I hope we can get both: Me winning again and still have good harmony,” Webber said. “Of course he’s scored a lot of good points, but it’s not been too bad for me either. I’ve also a lot of points.”
Vettel’s supremacy has heightened comparisons with Schumacher, who won the title five consecutive times from 2000.
Even though the seven-time world champion is experiencing a second miserable season after coming out of a three-year retirement, he has no problems with his compatriot, dubbed “Baby Schumi,” one day surpassing his records.
The 24-year-old Vettel, though, has a long way to go. Although Vettel became F1’s youngest title winner last season, Schumacher still holds the records for championships, race wins — both overall and in a single season — and pole positions.
“I get on very well with him, he is a good friend of mine,” said Schumacher, who is 10th in the championship and 160 points behind Vettel. “I would have no hard feelings if he did beat my records. I feel he would deserve it because he would have worked hard for it.”
The 42-year-old Schumacher believes it will be difficult for any driver to catch Vettel this season, but sounded a note of caution.
“He must never feel as if he is unstoppable because you know how fragile things are, how much work, how much attention is needed to be in the position you are in, to stay there, and how quickly it may disappear,” Schumacher said. “He maybe doesn’t have that experience yet, but I do. At the moment he is managing to extract the maximum, so there could still be a period of dominance.”
Schumacher is determined to carry on into next season and see out his three-year contract with Mercedes despite failing to reach the podium since coming out of retirement.
“I’ve always had the option to stop at any moment I wanted,” he said. “But I’m here for a fixed target, a three-year program, and that is what it is … we have a package which means it is not possible for us to get onto the podium.”
In morning practice, Kamui Kobayashi crashed his Sauber near the end, running wide on the final turn onto the pit straight before hitting the tire wall. The Japanese driver wrecked the front right and rear left of the car but the damage was repaired in time for him to get in 16 laps in the afternoon.
While Webber topped the time sheet, Hispania’s Daniel Ricciardo was slowest, almost eight seconds adrift of his fellow Australian ahead of his F1 debut on Sunday.
