Webber tops opening British GP practice

Mark Webber set the fastest time of a rain-affected opening practice session at Silverstone.

The Red Bull driver was significantly quicker than the rest of the field. Second-placed Michael Schumacher was 0.6s behind Webber. Barrichello was up in third place for Williams. Pérez was fourth quickest for Sauber with Massa fifth for Ferrari.

Alonso was 7th fastest ahead of Hamilton. Vettel was down in 13th place while Button was two further places down in the order.

Daniel Ricciardo completed his first practice session for HRT with the 24th fastest time, 0.9s down on Virgin’s d’Ambrosio.

Several drivers ran off-track during the session. Kobayashi crashed out and damaged his Sauber.

There was some late drama for pace-setter Webber. He lost drive on his way back to the pits and had to park his RB7 at Woodcote.

How the session panned out :

Early morning showers meant the F1 field was greeted by a wet Silverstone circuit. All cars went out for an installation lap and sampled the conditions before heading back in the pits.

Full wet tyres were the order of the day at first but, as the track dried out, were soon replaced by inters. With a limited allocation of each compound available, teams were keen on saving some for the rest of the weekend but were also keen on collecting data, especially with the exhaust clampdown coming into force this weekend.

With just under an hour remaining, Button was leading from Webber and Alonso. Both Mercedes of Rosberg and Schumacher completed the top five.

Hamilton and Vettel were warming up and slowly gathering speed. The Briton subsequently moved up to P3 while the Red Bull driver slotted in P2 and relegated him to P4. Hamilton found more improvement and took over at the front… only for his teammate to edge him out a few seconds later. It was not over yet as Vettel improved and split the McLaren pair.

The reigning World Champion had more in store and went top of the list. Light rain was now falling again but didn’t prevent Michael Schumacher from setting the fastest time.

With forty minutes remaining, Lewis Hamilton had a go on the soft slick tyre and struggled quite massively. He came back in the pits after a couple of laps.

Mark Webber’s 2nd run saw him go marginally faster than Schumacher. Alonso, in turn, was slightly quicker and took over at the front. The top three was covered by a single tenth. Alguersuari was a rather surprising fourth for Toro Rosso.

It started raining again and the drivers found it hard to improve.

Kamui Kobayashi ran wide out of the final corner and lost control of his Sauber. He was almost sent rolling and hit the barriers. The front and rear right suspensions were damaged, the rear wing ripped off.

Vettel was on track and looking for improvements but yellow flags on the start/finish straight prevented him from doing so. He eventually pitted, while his teammate came out and made the most of the now-cleared track to reclaim top spot.

Track conditions got better at the end of the session, allowing for lap times’ improvements. The final minutes were hectic with no less than 23 cars on track.

Mark Webber was the sole driver to dip under the 1’47 barrier and ended the session on top. Schumacher was second fastest while Barrichello and Perez were up in third and fourth position respectively. Massa completed a top five covered by 0.9s.