Webber edges Button in first practice session

2011 Brazilian GP first practice

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Mark Webber, Red Bull, Interlagos, 2011

Mark Webber headed the first practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull pilot was just 14 thousandths of a second quicker than Jenson Button.

The McLaren and Red Bull cars swapped fastest times during the session. Lewis Hamilton was third quickest ahead of Sebastian Vettel, the world champion wearing a new helmet-mounted camera during the session.

The two Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were next. Alonso’s session came to an end when his engine failed five minutes before the chequered flag came out.

Romain Grosjean, driving Vitaly Petrov’s car, also came to a stop before the end of the session with a technical problem on the Renault.

Several other teams ran one-off drivers during the session. Nico Hulkenberg was eighth-quickest for Force India behind Michael Schumacher.

Jean-Eric Vergne was 18th for Toro Rosso, Luiz Razia 20th for Lotus and Jan Charouz last in the HRT.

Kamui Kobayashi had a minor spin during the session but didn’t hit anything and ended up 15th-fastest.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGap
12Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’13.81126
24Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’13.8250.01425
33Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’13.9610.15020
41Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’14.0250.21428
56Felipe MassaFerrari1’14.5070.69634
65Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’14.5410.73026
77Michael SchumacherMercedes1’15.1621.35128
814Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’15.1781.36728
915Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’15.2411.43031
108Nico RosbergMercedes1’15.3211.51028
1119Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’15.4681.65729
1210Romain GrosjeanRenault1’15.5471.73618
1311Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’15.6631.85227
149Bruno SennaRenault1’15.7321.92132
1516Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’15.7471.93631
1612Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’15.8362.02527
1717Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’15.9792.16835
1818Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’16.0522.24133
1920Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’16.5142.70333
2021Luiz RaziaLotus-Renault1’17.5953.78431
2124Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’18.1404.32929
2225Jerome D’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’18.6534.84229
2322Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’18.9525.14133
2423Jan CharouzHRT-Cosworth1’19.5775.76637

2011 Brazilian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    23 comments on “Webber edges Button in first practice session”

    1. I wonder if the new wing Sebastian is running isn’t actually working… I know it’s only FP1, but it will be interesting to see if Red Bull keep him on it all weekend.

      1. It might have been just something they are testing to find out its effect for designing next years aero package.

        1. I suppose they can afford to play around with Sebastian’s car, can’t they? I guess Red Bull have let FOM experiment with all of these cameras because they’ve nothing to lose now.

    2. Sadly, this is all I’ll have to go on for predictions. Gonna be off visiting relatives for the holiday in the states :/. Go figure that one of the few times they’re close to my time zone is the one time I need them to be finishing FP2 at like 8 am my time instead.

    3. Great to see Webber back on top. Lets hope it stays this way all weekend.

    4. Curious if FA is going to need a new engine? Starting from 15th wouldn’t do his #2 goal much good.

      1. @STSCM I imagine they will just use another of their allowed 8.

        1. You’re right, just read about that. Thanks!

    5. Amazed that Grosjean still beat Senna after completing so much fewer laps.

      Then again Senna might be on Race Simulation

      1. Or on testing whatever new bits they might have. But the big grin on Grosjeans face tells us he feels pretty good about that race deal for next year, I guess.

        1. He has looked very fast. He never really got the chance or the car to impress on his F1 debut and since then he has improved beyond recognition as a race driver. I think he is very talented and may perform to a Kubica level.

    6. So these are the drivers who have headed the FP1 sessions in 2011:

      Webber 6
      Hamilton 4
      Schumacher 2
      Alonso 2
      Vettel 2
      Button 2
      Rosberg 1

      1. Hahaha – thank you for posting this. It never ceases to amaze me, the amount of stock some people put into FP1 times, apparently thinking they will be representative of the rest of the weekend!

    7. Way to go Hulkenberg and Grosjean.

    8. Maybe Vergne ought to concentrate on beating Alguersuari first.

      (And before you tell me that practice doesn’t mean anything, a young drivers test using different tyres, possibly different parts, and with a significantly warmer daytime track didn’t mean anything either).

      1. I’m interested to see what kind of big talk we’ll be getting from him after this session…

    9. If Massa had beat Alonso by a second, I’d know Alonso had problems. But as he’s narrowly ahead I have hopes he can be in for a great race!

      1. But if Felipe had Alonso beaten by a second, it would mean there would be pace to spare in the car!

    10. Richard F150 - I am not a truck
      25th November 2011, 15:37

      So next year based on this result I would bet on…

      Romain Grosjean > Senna = (Petrov, Grosjean – Renult)
      Nico Hulkenberg > Paul di Resta = (Hulkenberg, Sutil – FI)
      Jaime Alguersuari > Jean-Eric Vergne = (Alguersuari, Buemi – TR)
      Rubens Barrichello > M$ldon$do = (M$ldon$do, Bottas – Williams)

      Any takers?

      1. yeah i’ll take you on that Force india one. There is no way they’ll be giving Di Resta the boot. How much do you want to ride on it?

        1. @mike-e Was going to say just this. Given that there’s less than a tenth of a second between Hülkenberg and Di Resta, I’d say there’s not much in it between them. If the gap were three-tenths, however, it would be a different story.

    11. Vettel’s helmet cam was so disorientating. Great though!

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