Webber edges Raikkonen in first Friday practice

Red Bull headed the times sheets in first practice for the second weekend in a row.

But this time it was Mark Webber rather than his team mate who led the way.

As in Melbourne the session got off to a quiet start. Once the drivers had completed they installation laps hardly anyone ventured out onto the track for the next half an hour.

After Max Chilton the second driver to set a time was Sergio Perez, the early appearance of the McLaren on track an indication of the work the team have to do to sort out the problematic MP4-28.

Jenson Button joined his team mate on the track shortly afterwards but his run was cut short by a right-rear puncture.

Within a few minutes the track was busy and the the Red Bulls took to the top of the times, Webber being the only driver to lap the circuit in less than 97 seconds.

Sebastian Vettel initially took up second behind him until Kimi Raikkonen split their pair of RB9s. The winner of the Australian Grand Prix had a disrupted start to the session – a KERS problem meant he was the last driver to set a time.

Force India also ran into trouble as Adrian Sutil experienced a front-right wing failure after running over a kerb. Later in the session his engineer attempted to warn him to stay off the kerbs, which Sutil misheard as an instruction not to use KERS.

Esteban Gutierrez had a spin in the Sauber when he came across Felipe Massa at turn, but didn’t hit anything. Fernando Alonso was the quickest of the two Ferraris in fourth place after locking up and going off at turn one.

The lap times dropped off sharply towards the end of the session as drivers increasingly struggled to post improvements on their increasingly worn tyres. Hamilton reported his rears were finished after 18 laps.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’36.935		15
2	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus-Renault	1’37.003	0.068	15
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’37.104	0.169	21
4	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’37.319	0.384	13
5	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’37.588	0.653	19
6	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1’37.769	0.834	17
7	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’37.771	0.836	15
8	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1’37.773	0.838	15
9	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’37.840	0.905	18
10	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1’37.915	0.980	17
11	5	Jenson Button	McLaren	1’38.173	1.238	16
12	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1’38.673	1.738	16
13	6	Sergio Perez	McLaren	1’38.830	1.895	17
14	11	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	1’39.054	2.119	17
15	12	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’39.204	2.269	16
16	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	1’39.208	2.273	19
17	18	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’39.284	2.349	17
18	19	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’39.567	2.632	16
19	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	1’40.728	3.793	17
20	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	1’40.996	4.061	14
21	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	1’41.163	4.228	18
22	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	1’41.513	4.578	18

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18 comments on “Webber edges Raikkonen in first Friday practice”

J. Jonah Jameson (@jjjj)
22nd March 2013, 3:44

Something fishy about that Redbull…
1. Pelican (@pelican)
  22nd March 2013, 3:49
  
  What happened?
2. aka_robyn (@)
  22nd March 2013, 4:21
  
  Please do elaborate!
3. Jono (@me262)
  22nd March 2013, 4:51
  
  creative engine mapping? holes/slots? webbers kers?
4. MB (@muralibhats)
  22nd March 2013, 5:07
  
  Yes. Webber is Sandbagging. :)
Peter_GH
22nd March 2013, 3:47

If its dry it looks like we could be in for yet another ‘race’ full of drivers driving slowly to save tyres :(

So with that a 2 DRS zones it looks like i will be turning off early.
Rahim.RG (@rahim-rg)
22nd March 2013, 4:18

Lotus Looks good..i’m having a good feeling..rain or shine…
1. Maksutov (@maksutov)
  22nd March 2013, 4:51
  
  Either that, or simply Raikkonen looks good…
sumedh
22nd March 2013, 4:39

Half a second between Felipe and Fernando. I know it is just 1st practice, but still..
1. BarnstableD (@barnstabled)
  22nd March 2013, 11:41
  
  0.9 between Raikkonen and Grosjean…
Pandaslap (@pandaslap)
22nd March 2013, 4:41

I wonder how Hulkenberg feels about his move to Sauber at the moment.
1. MB (@muralibhats)
  22nd March 2013, 5:09
  
  like jumping from a frying pan to boiling oil.
  
  Still a long season.
2. Aditya (@adityafakhri)
  22nd March 2013, 5:16
  
  me too. I don’t expect Force India to be that quick even after their major facility upgrade. Sauber is a bit concern for me as they radically change the concept (ex: tiny sidepod). while I’m sure McLaren will bounce back rather quickly, I doubt the same would happen in Sauber.
3. Pandaslap (@pandaslap)
  22nd March 2013, 6:44
  
  @muralibhats It is a long season and things can change but, as @adityafakhri points out, it is less likely for Sauber to bounce back after starting on the wrong foot.
  
  I’m not the biggest Hulk fan myself, but I think a lot of people wanted to see him really emerge as a challenger this season. With Sauber this far off the pace, it is seeming less and less likely that we will see him competing for podiums.
4. BasCB (@bascb)
  22nd March 2013, 6:58
  
  I think he sees it as a step closer to Ferrari to be honest. And I don’t think Sauber are doing that bad really.
5. Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
  22nd March 2013, 21:46
  
  Was it down to results? I seriously doubt it, therefore I think he must not worry that much about it.
Maksutov (@maksutov)
22nd March 2013, 4:56

Whats up with Perez?…
Aditya (@adityafakhri)
22nd March 2013, 5:19

I suspect it just a matter of finding setup for qualifying, not in longer run as Red Bull leading again, and Raikkonen closely followed after problems and set the time latter in the session. Better picture as always will be in FP2.