Red Bull on top again at damp Silverstone

2011 British GP first practice

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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.CarDriverCarBest lapGap
12Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’46.60319
27Michael SchumacherMercedes1’47.2630.66020
311Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’47.3470.74423
417Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’47.4220.81922
56Felipe MassaFerrari1’47.5620.95913
68Nico RosbergMercedes1’47.7581.15523
75Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’48.1611.55816
83Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’48.5491.94621
914Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’48.5981.99519
1019Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’48.6782.07522
1115Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’48.7302.12718
1218Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’48.7782.17518
131Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’48.7942.19121
1412Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’48.8092.20617
154Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’48.8412.23823
169Nick HeidfeldRenault1’48.9412.33820
1710Vitaly PetrovRenault1’49.6033.00015
1816Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’50.1333.53017
1921Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’50.2223.61914
2020Karun ChandhokLotus-Renault1’51.1194.51617
2124Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’52.4705.86717
2223Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’53.1436.54020
2325Jerome D’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’53.4696.86626
2422Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’54.3347.73124

2011 British 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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    25 comments on “Red Bull on top again at damp Silverstone”

    1. 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. 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.

    2. 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. Not really Hamilton was purple in S1 but didn’t complete the lap.

    3. michael schumacher rain master? :D

      1. drying track master?

    4. 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.

    5. Keith, it seems you miss a “<" or something of the sort in 3rd paragraph…

    6. 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. As the commentators pointed out, he also ran the risk of turning over. The damage was very heavy.

    7. As long as Vettel is not fastest, I don’t care who is topping the timesheets!

      1. I think he went fastest in the 1st two sectors, but botched the third.

      2. I smell sour grapes.

    8. Schumacher did well, which was great to see, and Crofty mentioned me in the commentary :D

      1. Congrats :D

    9. 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?

    10. Vettel’s ‘smoke’ problem was spilled engine oil on the exhaust system. Webber ran out of fuel at the end of the session.

      1. Perhaps they did not get the savings they were expecting without the off throttle gadget.

      2. RBR had trouble with the fluids then this morning. :-D

    11. 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.

    12. 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.

    13. Stewards wanted to know why Hamilton had used his DRS during wet track conditions.

      1. “Because practice is where you find out what happens if I do this” would be a sensible response.

      2. 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

    14. 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.

    Comments are closed.