Red Bull on top again at damp Silverstone

Daniel Ricciardo, HRT, Silverstone, 2011

Mark Webber set the fastest time as rain disrupted the first practice session at Silverstone.

Practice began on a damp but drying circuit. Michael Schumacher had headed the times for a significant portion of the session. Like several other drivers, he had a few off-track moments on the slippery surface.

First Webber, then Fernando Alonso took the fastest time off Schumacher.

The rain returned shortly afterwards. Kamui Kobayashi was one of few drivers to stay out an paid the price.

He ran wide at Club and lost control of the car as he returned to the track. The Sauber snapped away from him and crashed heavily.

The session continued under yellow flags while the car was recovered. Once the track was clear the lap times began improving quickly.

Webber posted a series of quick laps to head the final times with a 1’46.603.

But he hit trouble as the session ended, rolling to a halt in the Red Bull. Earlier in the session he had to cope with a dislodged head rest.

Problems at Red Bull weren’t confined to Webber’s car. Sebastian Vettel’s RB7 was seen emitting smoke in the pits.

Schumacher posted the second-fastest time just before the end of the session.

Rubens Barrichello took third for Williams ahead of Sergio Perez.

Pos.	Car	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap
1	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’46.603		19
2	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1’47.263	0.660	20
3	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1’47.347	0.744	23
4	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’47.422	0.819	22
5	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’47.562	0.959	13
6	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’47.758	1.155	23
7	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’48.161	1.558	16
8	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1’48.549	1.946	21
9	14	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1’48.598	1.995	19
10	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’48.678	2.075	22
11	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1’48.730	2.127	18
12	18	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’48.778	2.175	18
13	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’48.794	2.191	21
14	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1’48.809	2.206	17
15	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’48.841	2.238	23
16	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1’48.941	2.338	20
17	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1’49.603	3.000	15
18	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1’50.133	3.530	17
19	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1’50.222	3.619	14
20	20	Karun Chandhok	Lotus-Renault	1’51.119	4.516	17
21	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1’52.470	5.867	17
22	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1’53.143	6.540	20
23	25	Jerome D’Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1’53.469	6.866	26
24	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	1’54.334	7.731	24

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25 comments on “Red Bull on top again at damp Silverstone”

BasCB (@bascb)
8th July 2011, 10:45
Weren’t the front drivers running on the blue intermediates right until the end? I think only Alonso and maybe Renault tried the slicks this morning.
(Oh, and a small glitch with the link to Webbers bio Keith.)
1. Eggry (@eggry)
  8th July 2011, 18:44
  Hamilton tried slick. but it looked too dangerous. He was slower than intermediate equipped cars. Not to mention he abandon slick and tried intermediate much more.
Todfod (@todfod)
8th July 2011, 10:56
Judging only by FP1, Mclaren are showing Valencia kind of form. Gotta wait until FP2 to see the true pace of the Mclarens and Mercedes cars.
1. BBT (@bbt)
  8th July 2011, 12:53
  Not really Hamilton was purple in S1 but didn’t complete the lap.
domichalek
8th July 2011, 10:58
michael schumacher rain master? :D
1. verstappen
  8th July 2011, 19:36
  drying track master?
Tom
8th July 2011, 11:00
McLaren are having balance issues by the looks of things. Jenson’s car looked very unstable. Understandable with such drastic changes they have to set the car up from scratch.
gwenouille (@gwenouille)
8th July 2011, 11:03
Keith, it seems you miss a “<" or something of the sort in 3rd paragraph…
montreal95 (@montreal95)
8th July 2011, 11:18
Keith, Kamui lost control at the new last corner which is Club and not Woodcote :)
I watched the whole session and Kobayashi was an accident waiting to happen even when it was drier-oversteering everywhere. Both Saubers actually, as Perez also spun, at Luffield.
1. Fixy (@)
  8th July 2011, 11:49
  As the commentators pointed out, he also ran the risk of turning over. The damage was very heavy.
Dan8 (@dan8)
8th July 2011, 11:34
As long as Vettel is not fastest, I don’t care who is topping the timesheets!
1. Todfod (@todfod)
  8th July 2011, 12:20
  I think he went fastest in the 1st two sectors, but botched the third.
2. Lol
  8th July 2011, 14:08
  I smell sour grapes.
PJ Tierney
8th July 2011, 11:47
Schumacher did well, which was great to see, and Crofty mentioned me in the commentary :D
1. Mike
  8th July 2011, 15:04
  Congrats :D
VXR
8th July 2011, 12:05
Hamilton went out on slicks to do an aero test. Seemed like they were trying to suss out the new rear wing DRS.
Doesn’t look to me like Red Bull have slowed down by a huge amount, does it?
VXR
8th July 2011, 12:07
Vettel’s ‘smoke’ problem was spilled engine oil on the exhaust system. Webber ran out of fuel at the end of the session.
1. hohum
  8th July 2011, 14:11
  Perhaps they did not get the savings they were expecting without the off throttle gadget.
2. Trix (@)
  8th July 2011, 15:38
  RBR had trouble with the fluids then this morning. :-D
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
8th July 2011, 14:40
Is anybody genuinely surprised at this? Red Bull might have relied heavily on the OTBD, but the RB7 was designed by Adrian Newey. If Newey is the genius he is so often painted as, intelligent enough to incorprate the OTBD into the core design of the car – rather than simply apply it after the act as all the other teams did – then he’s intelligent enough to recognise that the FIA might take issue with it and ban it. Such an outcome would be very bad for Red Bull, and so Newey would no doubt have a contingency plan in place: a design for a car that did not use the OTBD, but was still good enough to minimise the impact the OTBD ban would have.
VXR
8th July 2011, 15:23
The fact is that the Red Bull car is first and foremost a fundamentally good car. Whereas the McLaren, in winter testing, was an absolute dog, and only came alive when fitted with a copied version of Red Bull’s exhaust system.
VXR
8th July 2011, 17:00
Stewards wanted to know why Hamilton had used his DRS during wet track conditions.
1. hohum
  8th July 2011, 18:00
  “Because practice is where you find out what happens if I do this” would be a sensible response.
2. Eggry (@eggry)
  8th July 2011, 18:56
  Hmm…I thought if it is wet, ECU automatically disable DRS. I don’t think it’s his fault. Sometimes everyone want to press something without reason. or by mistake. of course if you’re F1 driver you don’t have to press Pit Limit button during the quali or the race lol
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
9th July 2011, 8:47
I know FP times aren’t that indicative but I’d love it if the W02’s were. They’re the most disappointing thing to come out of these sessions.