Saturday, August 27, 2011

GreenBkk.com Formula 1 | Mark Webber heads Lewis Hamilton in practice at Spa

Mark Webber heads Lewis Hamilton in practice at Spa

Page last updated at 10:13 GMT, Saturday, 27 August 2011 11:13 UK

By Andrew Benson
BBC Sport at Spa-Francorchamps


Webber's time of two minutes, eight seconds was around 18 seconds slower than his best time on Friday

Red Bull's Mark Webber set the pace in a rain-affected final practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Australian, celebrating his 35th birthday and a one-year contract extension, was just 0.058 seconds quicker than McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

Most of the leading drivers only did limited running as they tried to save tyres ahead of qualifying at 1300 BST.

Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari was third, ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, fourth in the championship behind Vettel, Webber and Hamilton, did not even record a timed lap.

After overnight rain, the morning was largely dry, but a heavy shower just before the start of the session at 1100 local time (1000 BST) ensured the track was soaking.

A number of drivers had off-track moments on the treacherous circuit, but there were no repeats of the crashes suffered by Renault's Bruno Senna and Force India's Paul di Resta on Friday.

Di Resta, on his first visit to the demanding Spa track in an F1 car, was the fastest on wet tyres.

LAST FIVE BELGIAN GRAND PRIX WINNERS
  • 2010 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
  • 2009 - Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
  • 2008 - Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
  • 2007 - Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
  • 2005 - Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren)

Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher was the first man to try the intermediate tyres and he produced a number of laps right on the edge, but he was not able to supplant Di Resta at the top of the timesheets.

"This is heroic stuff going on with Michael Schumacher on the intermediate tyre," BBC 5 live analyst Anthony Davidson said.

"I'm not sure the track is ready for them and I'm not sure why he is taking so many risks, but he is really pushing on."

Schumacher's team-mate Nico Rosberg suffered a front-right puncture, and his journey back to the pits caused some light damage to the floor of the car.

Toro Rosso's Sebastian Buemi went out a few minutes after Schumacher and immediately leapt to the top, before being beaten by Alguersuari and Button.

The Englishman was complaining of "balance issues" in his McLaren, meaning it was not behaving as he wished in the tricky conditions.

The teams face a difficult decision ahead of qualifying as to how to set-up their cars.

The session that defines the grid is expected to be predominantly wet, but dry weather is predicted for Sunday morning and the start of the race, although there is a chance of showers.

So the teams have to decide whether to prepare the cars for ultimate performance in the wet, in which case they would be compromised if the race was dry, or plan for a dry race and sacrifice some performance in qualifying.

Credit: BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)

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