Webber fastest ahead of China qualifying

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Red Bull flexed their muscles ahead of qualifying at Shanghai
Red Bull flexed their muscles ahead of qualifying at Shanghai

Mark Webber usurped McLaren at the top of the times sheets in final practice for the Chinese Grand Prix.

But his best lap of 1’35.323 in third practice today fell short of beating Lewis Hamilton’s best time of 1’35.217 around the Shanghai circuit yesterday.

For the second time this weekend practice was brought to a halt due to a crash. Vitaly Petrov’s accident in the Renault at the last corner was less destructive than Sebastien Buemi’s alarming shunt yesterday but his team face a race against time to get him ready for qualifying.

Petrov was one of several drivers to run onto the grasscrete at the exit of the final corner – but he lost control of the R30, skipping across the gravel bed and hitting the tyre wall, damaging the front of his car.

Once the session was re-started the teams made their final runs on soft tyres in preparation for qualifying. The McLaren duo had led the running on hard tyres earlier in the session but Webber produced a lap two tenths of a second faster than either of them could manage on the soft compound.

Sebastian Vettel placed third after repair work to his front-left wheel earlier in the session. Jenson Button was second ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari and the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher.

Williams tested a shark fin wing with their version of an F-duct on Rubens Barrichello’s car. They had been unable to run the parts in testing yesterday as they had been impounded by Chinese customs. Once installed problems with Barrichello’s engine meant their test had to be curtailed.

As happened yesterday, some cars experienced problems with traffic. Notably Felipe Massa, who was held up by Karun Chandhok at the hairpin on his final lap, and shook his first in anger at the Indian driver.

Pos. Car Driver Car Best lap Laps
1 6 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1’35.323 16
2 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1’35.564 0.241 12
3 5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1’35.691 0.368 14
4 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1’35.747 0.424 14
5 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1’35.857 0.534 13
6 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’35.913 0.59 12
7 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1’36.262 0.939 10
8 11 Robert Kubica Renault 1’36.343 1.02 16
9 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1’36.416 1.093 11
10 23 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1’36.634 1.311 16
11 17 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1’36.879 1.556 17
12 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1’37.031 1.708 16
13 16 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1’37.192 1.869 18
14 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1’37.240 1.917 18
15 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1’37.339 2.016 13
16 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1’37.585 2.262 13
17 22 Pedro de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1’37.664 2.341 19
18 10 Nico H?â??lkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1’37.784 2.461 14
19 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1’39.579 4.256 15
20 19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1’39.616 4.293 17
21 25 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1’39.749 4.426 13
22 18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1’39.776 4.453 16
23 21 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 1’40.316 4.993 19
24 20 Karun Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1’41.141 5.818 18

Practice results – all sessions

Pos Driver Car FP1 FP2 FP3 Total laps
1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1’36.775 1’35.217 1’35.564 57
2 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1’37.980 1’35.995 1’35.323 62
3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’36.748 1’35.465 1’35.913 51
4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1’36.677 1’35.593 1’35.747 55
5 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1’37.509 1’35.602 1’36.262 52
6 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1’37.601 1’35.791 1’35.691 64
7 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1’36.604 1’35.857 52
8 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1’38.008 1’36.254 1’37.240 62
9 Robert Kubica Renault 1’37.716 1’36.389 1’36.343 62
10 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1’38.161 1’36.377 1’36.879 79
11 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1’38.098 1’36.944 1’36.416 66
12 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1’38.375 1’37.431 1’36.634 70
13 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1’37.745 1’36.986 1’37.339 65
14 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1’37.804 1’37.031 47
15 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1’39.939 1’37.192 23
16 Pedro de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1’38.421 1’37.421 1’37.664 70
17 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1’38.678 1’37.657 1’37.585 60
18 Nico H?â??lkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1’38.569 1’37.867 1’37.784 63
19 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1’38.618 26
20 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1’41.830 1’40.233 1’39.579 62
21 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1’41.779 1’39.947 1’39.616 70
22 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1’41.531 1’39.624 1’39.776 73
23 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1’42.181 1’41.107 1’39.749 68
24 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 1’43.875 1’41.345 1’40.316 74
25 Karun Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1’43.949 1’41.008 1’41.141 70

2010 Chinese Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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5 comments on “Webber fastest ahead of China qualifying”

  1. yelrom
    17th April 2010, 5:31

    Notice how in the last 2 races, friday prac was Hamilton and on Sat prac Webber wld just get ahead of Hamilton.

    1. macahan
      17th April 2010, 5:57

      And yet Vettel have managed to be fastest so far all but once in Quali. So to try to predict pool sitter is not possible after FP1 & 2. Seems that neither Red Bull nor Ferrari is going for times during FP1 & 2.

      1. Patrickl
        17th April 2010, 11:31

        Webber was doing just as many qualifying simulations on Friday as Hamilton was. While Vettel was working on long runs.

        Both Ferrari’s did 2 qualifying simulations as opposed to 3 for Hamilton, Button, Rosberg and Webber. Schumacher did 4.

        The thing is that Alonso puts on a bit of extra performance for the actual qualifying compared to the rest. Or rather he doesn’t let the tension get to him. While the McLaren guys both messed up their qualifying

        Other than that everybody is more or less where they should be.

    2. Ben
      17th April 2010, 6:21

      Seems to be how RB runs their programs though, they’re always mid-pack on friday only to come forward during Saturday.

  2. kbdavies
    17th April 2010, 6:46

    Seems RB only use the height ride system on Quali on Sat. This is probably intended to stymie any prying and unnecessary questions until its too late.Just some speculation on my part.
    But again, RB team principal is denying it with a straight face, so he must know the system by another name ad they are definitely using something.

Comments are closed.