Webber leads final practice at wet Spa

Mark Webber, Red Bull, Spa-Francorchamps, 2011

Mark Webber was fastest in another wet practice session at Spa-Francorchamps.

Rain was already falling as practice began. The first drivers to go out did installation laps on intermediates tyres but those who came out later used wet weather tread.

By the time Jenson Button came out to do his installation lap the circuit was extremely wet: “like a lake”, said Button over his radio, adding that the conditions were worse than they had been in Canada.

After 20 minutes the rain ease and Daniel Ricciardo came out of the pits, the last driver to complete his installation lap.

Halfway through the session the track finally started to get busier, with the Toro Rossos and Red Bulls coming out first.

In the heavy wet conditions drivers were taking two-and-a-quarter minutes to lap the 7km Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber took time to sample the circuit in wet conditions while McLaren and Ferrari’s drivers stayed in the pits.

The Force India drivers swapped fastest sector times, the VJM04s looking particularly quick in the first and third sectors.

Adrian Sutil set the fastest time to begin with while team mate Paul di Resta had a spin at Pouhon. But di Resta returned to the track to set the fastest time.

Michael Schumacher was one of the first drivers to try intermediate tyres and went second-fastest behind di Resta. But they were demoted by Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso.

Webber returned to the track to head the times with a 2’08.988, returning to the pits with four minutes to go.

The last driver who looked able to beat his time was Lewis Hamilton, who fell short by five-hundredths of a second with his final effort.

Ferrari did little running in the wet session and Fernando Alonso didn’t set a time at all.

Pos.	Car	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap
1	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	2’08.988		7
2	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	2’09.046	0.058	8
3	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	2’09.931	0.943	16
4	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	2’10.257	1.269	7
5	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	2’10.402	1.414	9
6	18	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	2’10.580	1.592	15
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	2’10.837	1.849	12
8	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	2’11.437	2.449	13
9	9	Bruno Senna	Renault	2’11.664	2.676	14
10	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	2’11.667	2.679	10
11	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	2’11.874	2.886	13
12	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	2’13.036	4.048	15
13	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	2’13.074	4.086	12
14	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	2’13.182	4.194	12
15	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	2’13.290	4.302	15
16	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	2’13.778	4.790	12
17	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	2’14.334	5.346	14
18	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	2’14.682	5.694	11
19	25	Jerome D’Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	2’17.159	8.171	12
20	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	2’18.039	9.051	10
21	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	2’19.001	10.013	12
22	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	2’19.597	10.609	14
23	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	2’22.454	13.466	7
24	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	No time		5

Complete practice times

Pos	Driver	Car	FP1	FP2	FP3	Sat/Fri	Laps
1	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	2’09.792	1’50.321	2’08.988	+18.667	37
2	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	2’07.055	1’50.461			36
3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	2’02.740	1’50.770	2’10.257	+19.487	24
4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	2’04.301	1’50.838	2’09.046	+18.208	24
5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	2’04.728	1’51.218	2’22.454	+31.236	31
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’54.829	1’51.242	2’10.837	+19.595	50
7	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	2’07.481	1’51.655	2’14.334	+22.679	50
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes		1’51.725			18
9	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	2’13.058	1’51.751	2’11.874	+20.123	30
10	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	2’03.752	1’51.790	2’10.402	+18.612	32
11	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1’54.355	1’51.922	2’11.667	+19.745	46
12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	2’08.918	1’52.750	2’13.074	+20.324	42
13	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	2’06.886	1’52.780	2’13.182	+20.402	53
14	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	2’06.583	1’52.911	2’09.931	+17.02	57
15	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	2’08.239	1’53.009	2’10.580	+17.571	54
16	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	2’05.391	1’53.156	2’13.778	+20.622	41
17	Bruno Senna	Renault	2’14.340	1’53.835	2’11.664	+17.829	42
18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	2’08.233	1’55.051	2’14.682	+19.631	45
19	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	2’12.278	1’55.494	2’18.039	+22.545	46
20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault		1’56.202	2’13.036	+16.834	30
21	Jerome d’Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	2’12.772	1’56.816	2’17.159	+20.343	46
22	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	2’12.389	1’57.450	2’19.597	+22.147	43
23	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	2’14.933	1’57.612	2’19.001	+21.389	47
24	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	2’13.601	2’02.234	2’13.290	+11.056	37
25	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	2’04.663		2’11.437	+6.774	31
26	Karun Chandhok	Lotus-Renault	2’13.090				11

2011 Belgian Grand Prix

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Image © Red Bull/Getty images

16 comments on “Webber leads final practice at wet Spa”

F1andy83
27th August 2011, 11:11

Anyone has details on senna vs petrov?

Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
27th August 2011, 11:13

What do you want to know?
1. F1andy83
  27th August 2011, 11:22
  
  Did they go out around the same time? The time difference just seems huge. I’m wondering how much weather played into this.
2. Jarred Walmsley
  27th August 2011, 11:27
  
  Just wondering Keith why is Senna not in the combined practice times?
  1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
    27th August 2011, 11:58
    
    He is now!

jake
27th August 2011, 11:13

do we know whether Webber was on new or used tyres. Vettel, Hamilton and Button were all on used but i didnt hear anything about Mark

DavidS (@davids)
27th August 2011, 11:23

He was on wets, the track was wet. Whether or not he was on used or new rubber is irrelevant in those conditions.

To answer your question, the logical thing would be that he’s on a used set. Why would he use up a new set when qualifying is set to be wet, and the race will probably be rain affected?
1. jake
  27th August 2011, 11:31
  
  hmm, so…
  
  “Why would he use up a new set when qualifying is set to be wet, and the race will probably be rain affected?”
  
  Well, maybe because…
  
  “Whether or not he was on used or new rubber is irrelevant in those conditions.”
  
  Seriously though, being on a new set rather than a used set would have given a significant speed advantage, and yes, whilst you would have thought he was using used, I seem to remember Mark doing a lot more wet running yesterday and perhaps this wasn’t possible?

tattsbrah (@xbarrettmatex)
27th August 2011, 11:15

Here’s hoping Mark’s form continues through to qualifying and the race.

Adrian Morse
27th August 2011, 11:22

Interesting to see that the McLaren drivers did the fewest laps of anybody but Chandok and Hulkenberg. It looks like they are pretty conservative with their material.

bosyber (@bosyber)
27th August 2011, 11:23

Well, I enjoyed watching it, but I still don’t know much about their relative speeds, will be nice to see things developing in qualifying.

BasCB (@bascb)
27th August 2011, 11:24

So we know the FI guys might have gone for a low downforce setup, probalby hoping to be able to make the most of a dry race. And Ferrari must feel pretty confident.

And the top teams count on doing qualifying on inters or wets even saving them for that.