Red Bull's Mark Webber quickest in Belgian Grand Prix practice
Page last updated at 13:41 GMT, Friday, 26 August 2011 14:41 UK
By Andrew Benson
BBC Sport at Spa-Francorchamps
Red Bull's Mark Webber set the pace from Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in a rain-interrupted practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Australian set a best lap of one minute 50.321 seconds to beat Alonso by just 0.140secs, with McLaren's Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton next.
Button was 0.449secs adrift of Webber, with Hamilton 0.068secs further back.
Force India's Paul di Resta was ninth on his F1 debut at Spa, just behind the team's reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg.
Both sessions on Friday were disrupted by rain.
The second session started on a damp track after showers in the lunch interval, but it dried up sufficiently for a period of running on slick tyres in the middle of the session.
The drivers first ran on harder 'medium' tyres, on which World Championship leader Sebastian Vettel was fastest by 0.3secs from Hamilton.
Vettel did not go out on the soft tyres towards the end of the dry window, unlike Webber, Alonso, Button, Hamilton, Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, who were fifth and sixth.
The performance comparison between the cars around the lap was as expected.
Webber was more than 0.3secs faster than Alonso in the middle sector of the lap, which features a sequence of medium- and high-speed corners, while the Ferrari and the McLaren clawed back some time in the first and second sectors, which are mainly straights and slow corners.
"McLaren have introduced some nice new reprofiled exhausts - that's an area they have been focusing on recently. It deflects the exhaust gas through the diffuser - they're still allowed to do that and McLaren continue to explore it very aggressively. The Red Bull is more Valencia specification than anything else. I don't know what the specification is on the rear suspension as they won't let me crawl under the car and have a look but I was talking to Mark Webber yesterday and he was saying they are happy with the car"
It remains to be seen how that split will balance out in terms of overall lap time in qualifying and the race.
Hispania technical director Geoff Willis, acting as an analyst for BBC Sport, said: "I still think the Red Bulls are looking strong but Alonso and the McLarens are fighting back. It's not going to be an easy one to call, and with the DRS (overtaking aid) you'll have to fight until the last lap."
BBC 5 live analyst Anthony Davidson added: "I think the Ferraris should be pretty strong here."
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)
DRS - which reduces drag to boost straightline speed - can be used in the race on the straight up the hill after Eau Rouge, if a driver is within a second of the car in front at a designated point on the track.
Michael Schumacher set the fastest time in the morning session as he starts the weekend that marks the 20th anniversary of his F1 debut. He and Mercedes team-mate Rosberg were the only men who set a time before it rained.
A downpour soaked the track and although it dried as the session went on, it was never dry enough for slick tyres.
The fastest driver on intermediate tyres in those conditions was Button with a lap time of two minutes 2.740 seconds - a second faster than Vettel, who was running behind him on the track.
Hamilton was fifth fastest overall, ahead of Force India's Adrian Sutil.
Unusually, Sutil sat out the second session in favour of Hulkenberg - usually reserve drivers run in the first session on Friday.
Sutil was not happy, telling BBC Sport: "We changed the session with Nico this morning. It is not good for the performance to not be in the car.
"It's a bit disappointing what the team does because it's not good for the success but I had to sit out for the afternoon and will do my best tomorrow.
LAST FIVE BELGIAN GRAND PRIX POLE-SITTERS
- 2010 - Mark Webber (Red Bull)
- 2009 - Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India)
- 2008 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
- 2007 - Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
- 2005 - Juan Pablo Montoya (McLaren)
"It was the only dry session we had and I missed it. But [this morning] I felt good, the car was fast and as usual we can expect a good performance here."
As drivers explored the wet conditions in the morning, Bruno Senna crashed, an inauspicious start to his first race weekend for Renault at Turn Nine.
Scot Paul di Resta, who had never driver an F1 car at Spa before, also had a similar off at that tricky downhill corner.
That incident brought out a red flag as the session was stopped while marshals recovered the Force India from the barriers.
Senna was much more impressive in the second session.
In the wet early running, the Brazilian was initially running third behind Webber and Alonso, before later moving up to second behind Vettel.
He ended the session 17th, with his Renault team-mate Vitaly Petrov down in 24th.
McLaren arrived in Belgium intending to use a new rear wing that has a more powerful straight-line speed boost when the DRS overtaking device is engaged.
But the wet conditions prevented them properly assessing its effect.
They also have a redesigned exhaust on the car in an attempt to increase downforce.
BBC F1 pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz said: "McLaren have introduced some nice new reprofiled exhausts - that's an area they have been focusing on recently. It deflects the exhaust gas through the diffuser - they're still allowed to do that and McLaren continue to explore it very aggressively."
World champions Red Bull are hoping to return to the front this weekend after failing to win since Vettel's victory in Valencia at the end of June.
BBC F1 pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz said: "The Red Bull is more Valencia specification than anything else. I don't know what the specification is on the rear suspension as they won't let me crawl under the car and have a look but I was talking to Mark Webber yesterday and he was saying they are happy with the car."
Red Bull ran some bright green 'flo-viz' paint, which allows them to see the airflow over parts of the car, on the diffuser of Webber's RB7, which suggests they may have some new designs on the floor.
Credit: BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)
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