Webber takes over at the top in second practice

2011 German Grand Prix second practice

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Mark Webber, Red Bull, Nurburgring, 2011

Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso were the top two drivers in the second practice session as they had been in the first – but this time Webber led the way.

Alonso was quickest earlier in the session, swapping best times with team mate Felipe Massa.

He used the race-specification soft tyres to set his best time but it was a somewhat messy run that included a few aborted efforts, one as he ran wide at the Dunlop hairpin.

Webber took to the track shortly afterwards and found a tenth of a second to better Alonso’s time, then a few hundredths more on his subsequent effort.

Vettel couldn’t quite match his team mate’s time and for the second session in a row Webber was the faster of the two.

Massa took fourth in front of the two Mercedes. Schumacher nearly had a run-in with Alonso who tried to pass him at the Dunlop hairpin. Alonso took to the grass, skidded sideways and narrowly missed the Mercedes.

Alonso had another encounter with Vitaly Petrov at the end of the session, oversteering close to the Renault as the went through turn three side-by-side.

Both McLarens were behind the Mercedes and Jenson Button ran into trouble after testing a new exhaust development, his session ending 15 minutes before the chequered flag.

Also in trouble was Daniel Ricciardo, whose HRT began belching smoke after five laps and coming to a halt.

Sebastien Buemi joined the track early in the session following his spin at the end of first practice, but wasn’t able to set a time due to an engine problem.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGapLaps
12Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’31.71134
25Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’31.8790.16838
31Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’32.0840.37328
46Felipe MassaFerrari1’32.3540.64336
57Michael SchumacherMercedes1’32.4110.70031
68Nico RosbergMercedes1’32.5570.84632
73Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’32.7241.01328
89Nick HeidfeldRenault1’33.0981.38717
910Vitaly PetrovRenault1’33.1381.42722
1014Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’33.2111.50034
114Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’33.2251.51417
1215Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’33.2991.58834
1317Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’34.1132.40234
1411Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’34.3442.63334
1519Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’34.4872.77637
1616Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’34.4912.78035
1712Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’34.9963.28535
1820Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’35.7534.04242
1924Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’36.9405.22932
2021Karun ChandhokLotus-Renault1’37.2485.53733
2125Jerome D’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’37.3135.60233
2223Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’38.1456.43431
2322Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’40.7379.0265
2418Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-FerrariNo time3

2011 German 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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    61 comments on “Webber takes over at the top in second practice”

    1. Oh look. McLaren nowhere.

      1. Hamilton to the pits:

        “That run was everything I had, flat-chat. If I go faster, I run out of road.”

        I fear we are about to see another massive struggle from them this weekend.

        1. Its going to be a good weekend ;)

          1. I guess you are a Ferrari fan ;)

            If you are not a Ferrari fan, I suggest you start to do some rain dance…

            1. hamilton has said stuff like this before and proved himself wrong, and he often says stuff like this when things arent going his way – to save face, for all we know he had more fuel then the redbulls and mclaren. it was only a couple races ago where they were the fastest car in race trim for about 3 or 4 races. in the race im sure they will be up there again.

          2. I’m sure it is infy! Pity McLaren no longer want to party with the rest. Alonson has done a fantastic job this season, but even so I think he needs another team challenging Red Bull too if he’s to stand a chance. Massa and Webber aren’t going to take the points of Vettel.

      2. This is a replay of 2010: At Silverstone, they brought a heap of updates. Didn’t work, and both drivers were struggling to keep it on the road. Germany, more updates, that apparently didn’t work, drivers struggling. And like last year, up until these botched surgeries, the car was fairly quick in the races. At least now the floors aren’t melting. Following the pattern, in Hungary they will be even more than 1s off the pace, and they will continue frantically fitting ineffective updates until the bitter end.

        It appears that the only succesful substantive update for McLaren this year is when they binned their own exhaust and copied the RBR system before the first race.

        1. Are these the tell tale signs that they actually might be missing Pat Fry?
          If I recall, the last time they had a staggering in season development program was in 2009 with a car he helped develop?

      3. McLaren need to sort themselves out! They haven’t had the best car in the field since 2007/2008.

    2. Good pacing by the Mercs. I wonder if McLaren will find their stuff until tomorrow.

      1. As in maybe, with some great driving from Hamilton or Button and some luck, challenging for third or fourth place during the race? They look in serious danger of being overtaken by Mercedes. If so, what exactly is the game plan for the rest of the season, given it will be over for their drivers? Three poor seasons now given their resources and drivers. What annoys me is the failure to accept they’re in trouble. Ferrari did so at the start of the season and have pulled it round. McLaren’s management remains utterly complacent.

        1. Not sure why everyone is focusing on McLaren. If McLaren had three poor seasons, then Ferrari have had shocking seasons as McLaren has finished in front of them in 2009, 2010 and 2011 is still to be decided. Why is there no Ferrari bashing.

          1. Ask the Ferrari fans! I’m sure they’re happy right now with Alonso driving so well and the Ferrari looking like it can win some more races. Last year Alonso was in the position to win the title in the final race, not Hamilton or Button. Just now I prefer Ferrari’s passion, even when they’re in meltdown, to McLaren’s increasingly lame corporate spiel.

            1. hamilton was in a position to win the championship up until about Italy or so, he choked badly. alonso didnt. this year it has been a similar year to last for both cars. only difference is hamilton choked earlier this season.

            2. dfketr

              That word – I do not think it means what you think it means.

          2. McLaren was in front of Ferrari as a team for those years, but in 2010 Fernando finished ahead of the McLaren boys and in 2011 he is currently ahead of them too. The difference is the driver pairing, not really the car. So my point is I disagree with your post about no Ferrari bashing and Ferrari having “shocking” season. Again, I think the 2 cars have been similar and the difference is that McLaren score more points because their 2 drivers score more points….(in other words, Ferrari would be ahead in const. points in the teams were Ferrari: Alonso & Button – McLaren: Lewis and Massa)….Sorry Felipe…

            1. TBH Mclaren boys should’ve been ahead of alonso based purely on the car. Its just that they have been bad and alonso good

        2. McLaren’s management remains utterly

          complacent.

          Agreed, Davi. After Valencia Hamilton suggested that they would struggle without the EBD. In the next day he was forced to change his statement to the press. I bet he was pushed to do that, but what we saw in British GP?

          Yes, Lewis was right. McLaren´s PR at any GP preview is starting to irritates me and their fans overall…

          1. Good point about Hamilton’s comments Becken. You can sense his frustration with yet another season gone, now his fifth and the third dud in a row, but no real feeling of a major rethink by the team. I’m campaigning for a mid-season jump to Ferrari now! Okay, I know it’s complete fantasy land, but I think it would actually be in Alonso’s interest. Sure he’d have to beat a driver as good as him, but together they’d have some chance of getting the points needed to haul in Red Bull and Vettel.

            1. what are you talking about? last year was no dud, he could have won the championship had it not been for his errors at the end of the season, he was well placed to take the title with only a handful of races left, so dont blame the team.
              this year he could have been much closer too, and could be preparing a second half of season assault, it not for his own driving errors yet again.
              the only “dud” year was 2009, and he drove like a dud too at the start of the year, and only improved when the car improved.
              he is fast but incosistent, he threw away the 2007 and 2010 championships and has thrown in the towel too early this year.

            2. dfketr, Hamilton over-drove a few times at the end of the season, true, as well as getting pole-axed by Webber, but that was because he was hauling the car upfield. As Whitmarsh stated, both LH and Button way outperformed the car mid-season but it still didn’t get them close enough. As for 2011, most of the mistakes this season have come from trying to make up for the team’s strategy mistakes in qualifying. Funny how he still finished ahead of his team mates, despite you laying the blame on Hamilton. They must be really bad then!

    3. It really does look a bit like a remake of 2009 for the championship fight. Early big lead untouchable, then team mate as well as other teams catching up and having to stay up front.

      The differences are, that a. Red Bull are keeping up developments, b. Vettel already has a WDC under his belt and is quite a different personality.

      Still, it might turn out to become a closer fought battle than we thought only 2-3 races ago. I am starting to even think about who to put on pole and win for the predictions championsip again!

      1. I’d like to know Alonsos last 8 laptimes, does anybody have that available? He tested the compounds against eachother and I guess it’ll be important to see if Ferrari sorted out their issuses with the harder compounds, otherwise you can keep predicting Vettel. Of course if it rains that won’t matter much but it will again one day :-P

        1. One of the invaluable projects of Keith is the session analysis which is usually available 3-4 hours after the session worst case scenario.

          Usually alot sooner.

          We’ll have a clean sign of race pace after that.

          My hunch is that it’s closer than usual – and the usual now is that Ferrari has the advantage in terms of race pace. Now it might not be the case after watching the last half hour.

          1. Thanks mate! A bit hard to judge but looks like the used hard one was about 8 tenths slower than the used soft one. Thats actually not too much.

    4. Sweet. Looks like things might be interesting this weekend after all.

      I am curious to see how Vettel fares in the race if he has to make up places to win. I am hoping we get to see some more of his race craft in addition to pure speed.

      Should be a fun one to watch!

      1. I am not that confident that we will see that because he will most certainly qualify top 2 and even if he drops down to 4 in the race, if there is little room for strategy boost he will surely get it from, in my opinion, best pit crew an race engineers.
        Well that is how MS has dominated a whole decade.

        1. …did I mention the team orders?:)

    5. I think Buemi’s incident in FP1 was a bit more than a spin..

      Hopefully Mark can keep this up but I’m expecting Vettel to have his usual increase in performace between now and Qualifying.

      Here’s hoping the home track nerves get to him so we can have a exciting Qualy and Race.

    6. I know it’s only FP2, so I can’t read much into it – I enjoy seeing Webber top the timesheets but I know Seb brings it in Q3. Loving the pace of the Mercs at the moment, I would LOVE to see Schuey on the podium here!

    7. Alonso looks quick as he has done 30.1 in first sector but need to abort lap due to running wide in turn 7. So it seems Ferrari may have underlying pace to challenge redbull for qualifying & race pace.. but still ferrari looks bit twitchy to drive compared to redbull. Mclaren may struggle in qualifying but their race pace seems to be good. Interesting two days ahead!!

    8. Feel rather sorry for Chandhok, he’s miles below the pace of Heikki (Who looks so well settled in that Lotus) in probably is one weekend before India.
      He just can’t seem to get the brakes to work, critical on this braking track.

      1. We all expect him to be slower that kov, but crucially he is also slower than Glock. although I believe that the virgin will out qualify Chandok, I expect his times to pick up during the race as he gets into his rhythm.

        1. He seems to have improved from prac1 to prac2..im sure he wil find some time in prac 3 again.after all Tony F said all he is looking for is improvement through out the weekend.

    9. Here’s hoping we see a change at the front for the rest of the season. If Fernando can keep coming first, followed by two number 2 drivers (massa and webber), there might be a chance to make this season worth watching XD

    10. After Webber, the driver who I would love to see win is Schumacher. Neither is going to happen though.

      1. Why not? Webber is faster in 2 sessions.

        1. Because Webber has been fastest in a lot of practice sessions this year.

          1. of course it has been but you cannot rule out him!

            1. Even Schumacher could win, if a chaotic race like the one of 2007 happens.

    11. Second weekend in a row that Webber has been faster than Vettel. Interesting.

    12. I’d love to see a chart showing the pace of the new teams from 2010 all the way up to now against the pace of the lower established teams: Williams, Force India and STR. To see just how much progress is being made. 8ths still seems quite a big gap.

    13. The team who looked to be challenging RBR is now in trouble.

    14. Interesting. Ferrari comfortably matching to Red Bull and Webber is faster than Vettel…I don’t think he’s sandbagging it’s due to his poor S2 time. Possibly Webber is more confident at Nurburgring.

      1. If Webber stands a chance to win a race let alone the WDC he needs to stand beat Vettel

        Webber’s last flying lap here resulted in his maiden Gran Prix victory

        It’s vettel’s home gp and webber’s would love to keep that away from him after vettel having won and made a fuss about winning the Australian GP which Webber, or infact no Australian has ever won

        1. After the start of the season we’ve had so far, i don’t mind if Vettel wins this weekend as long as there is gap of .168s or so among the top 3-4 drivers.

    15. Seems we are now seeing “The Fry-effect” at Ferrari right now …. :-(

      BTW, was Costa that bad?

      1. I see fernando n ferrari taking 5 more wins this season minimum.

      2. And the inverse of the effect at McLaren.

        1. I just hope they will figure out something very soon and I am sure they will. Just need to do little reshuffling within the development department. They are historically always on top or close there. I respect them for being devoted to the sport and their fans.

    16. I’ve read that the 107% rule doesn’t exist anymore.

      The FIA agreed this with HRT and Virgin in order to have them accpetto go back to Valencia’s blown diffuser rule.

      Anyone can confirm that ? Keith maybe ?
      i really doubt it.

      1. Not seen anything to suggest that’s the case.

        1. French sites i go to are saying that. But it surprised me a bit that no one talked about it before this week end.

          Thanks for the reply.

          1. keith i post again despite your answer because the site i go to is a pretty serious one and i really have mixed feeling about this onfo.
            they have someone at the track this week end and it’s coming from him.

            in case you understand a bit french or if google translate is good enough for you i can give you the url (i don’t know if its allowed to post url in comments)

    17. Good on Perez ahead of Kobayashi. I enjoy the battle between those two this season as Sauber have some great young driving talent in need of faster equipment.

      Can’t say the same for Ricciardo. Yeeesh, some 2.5 seconds off Liuzzi in that pig of a car. He has some work to do.

      Also enjoying the battle at Toro Rosso, seems Alguersuari is comming on strong as the season progresses.

      As for Mclaren… oh boy, could be a long weekend.

      1. In fairness Ricciardo only had 5 laps in the car before it starting spewing oil compared to the much more experienced Liuzzi’s 31.

    18. Any reason the posts are all out of order?

    19. Keith, typo:

      Second was Massa […]

      1. Or Massa took second, even.

        1. Changed it, thanks!

    Comments are closed.