Webber fastest ahead of China qualifying

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Red Bull flexed their muscles ahead of qualifying at Shanghai

Mark Webber usurped McLaren at the top of the times sheets in final practice for the Chinese Grand Prix.

But his best lap of 1’35.323 in third practice today fell short of beating Lewis Hamilton’s best time of 1’35.217 around the Shanghai circuit yesterday.

For the second time this weekend practice was brought to a halt due to a crash. Vitaly Petrov’s accident in the Renault at the last corner was less destructive than Sebastien Buemi’s alarming shunt yesterday but his team face a race against time to get him ready for qualifying.

Petrov was one of several drivers to run onto the grasscrete at the exit of the final corner – but he lost control of the R30, skipping across the gravel bed and hitting the tyre wall, damaging the front of his car.

Once the session was re-started the teams made their final runs on soft tyres in preparation for qualifying. The McLaren duo had led the running on hard tyres earlier in the session but Webber produced a lap two tenths of a second faster than either of them could manage on the soft compound.

Sebastian Vettel placed third after repair work to his front-left wheel earlier in the session. Jenson Button was second ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari and the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher.

Williams tested a shark fin wing with their version of an F-duct on Rubens Barrichello’s car. They had been unable to run the parts in testing yesterday as they had been impounded by Chinese customs. Once installed problems with Barrichello’s engine meant their test had to be curtailed.

As happened yesterday, some cars experienced problems with traffic. Notably Felipe Massa, who was held up by Karun Chandhok at the hairpin on his final lap, and shook his first in anger at the Indian driver.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapLaps
16Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’35.32316
22Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’35.5640.24112
35Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’35.6910.36814
41Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’35.7470.42414
58Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’35.8570.53413
64Nico RosbergMercedes1’35.9130.5912
73Michael SchumacherMercedes1’36.2620.93910
811Robert KubicaRenault1’36.3431.0216
97Felipe MassaFerrari1’36.4161.09311
1023Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’36.6341.31116
1117Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’36.8791.55617
1215Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes1’37.0311.70816
1316Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’37.1921.86918
1414Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’37.2401.91718
1512Vitaly PetrovRenault1’37.3392.01613
169Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’37.5852.26213
1722Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’37.6642.34119
1810Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’37.7842.46114
1924Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’39.5794.25615
2019Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’39.6164.29317
2125Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’39.7494.42613
2218Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’39.7764.45316
2321Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’40.3164.99319
2420Karun ChandhokHRT-Cosworth1’41.1415.81818

Practice results – all sessions

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Total laps
1Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’36.7751’35.2171’35.56457
2Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’37.9801’35.9951’35.32362
3Nico RosbergMercedes1’36.7481’35.4651’35.91351
4Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’36.6771’35.5931’35.74755
5Michael SchumacherMercedes1’37.5091’35.6021’36.26252
6Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’37.6011’35.7911’35.69164
7Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’36.6041’35.85752
8Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’38.0081’36.2541’37.24062
9Robert KubicaRenault1’37.7161’36.3891’36.34362
10Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’38.1611’36.3771’36.87979
11Felipe MassaFerrari1’38.0981’36.9441’36.41666
12Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’38.3751’37.4311’36.63470
13Vitaly PetrovRenault1’37.7451’36.9861’37.33965
14Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes1’37.8041’37.03147
15Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’39.9391’37.19223
16Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’38.4211’37.4211’37.66470
17Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’38.6781’37.6571’37.58560
18Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’38.5691’37.8671’37.78463
19Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’38.61826
20Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’41.8301’40.2331’39.57962
21Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’41.7791’39.9471’39.61670
22Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’41.5311’39.6241’39.77673
23Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’42.1811’41.1071’39.74968
24Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’43.8751’41.3451’40.31674
25Karun ChandhokHRT-Cosworth1’43.9491’41.0081’41.14170

2010 Chinese Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    5 comments on “Webber fastest ahead of China qualifying”

    1. Notice how in the last 2 races, friday prac was Hamilton and on Sat prac Webber wld just get ahead of Hamilton.

      1. And yet Vettel have managed to be fastest so far all but once in Quali. So to try to predict pool sitter is not possible after FP1 & 2. Seems that neither Red Bull nor Ferrari is going for times during FP1 & 2.

        1. Webber was doing just as many qualifying simulations on Friday as Hamilton was. While Vettel was working on long runs.

          Both Ferrari’s did 2 qualifying simulations as opposed to 3 for Hamilton, Button, Rosberg and Webber. Schumacher did 4.

          The thing is that Alonso puts on a bit of extra performance for the actual qualifying compared to the rest. Or rather he doesn’t let the tension get to him. While the McLaren guys both messed up their qualifying

          Other than that everybody is more or less where they should be.

      2. Seems to be how RB runs their programs though, they’re always mid-pack on friday only to come forward during Saturday.

    2. Seems RB only use the height ride system on Quali on Sat. This is probably intended to stymie any prying and unnecessary questions until its too late.Just some speculation on my part.
      But again, RB team principal is denying it with a straight face, so he must know the system by another name ad they are definitely using something.

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