Webber puts Red Bull on top in Germany

Mark Webber brought Red Bull on top, this afternoon, in setting the fastest time of the second practice session of the weekend.

The Australian beat Alonso by a tenth of a second, while his teammate Sebastian Vettel was third fastest. Massa was fourth fastest, seemingly confirming Ferrari’s good form at the Nurburgring.

Mercedes was the third force today, with both its drivers completing the top six.

McLaren was not quite there yet. Hamilton set the 7th fastest time but was a full second slower than the leading Red Bull. His teammate was down in 11th place and missed some running because of a mechanical failure on his car.

How the session unfolded :

As is usually the case, the teams lost no time in this session and immediately resumed their race preparations.

Less than ten minutes in, 16 drivers had already posted a time on the board. This morning’s pacesetter Fernando Alonso picked up where he left off before the lunch break and immediately established himself at the top of the standings.

Hamilton and Vettel quickly moved in the top three, but were more than a second behind the Spaniard.

These first minutes were quite animated, with a spin for Chandhok and a mechanical problem for Ricciardo. The Australian had to park his HRT in the 2nd split and wait for the marshals to lift it away.

RBR drivers Vettel and Webber steadily improved to gently close the gap to Alonso. With just fifteen minutes gone, they were both within a second of the Ferrari driver. Like most of the field, the top three pitted after a short first run.

Felipe Massa then took on a set of experimental soft tyre and easily took over at the front as he lapped 0.5s quicker than his teammate. Shortly after the halfway point, Alonso reclaimed the lead. Hamilton moved up to P3 while both Red Bulls were in the pits.

When Webber came out on a set of soft tyres, he immediately jumped at the front. Vettel also had a go at it with half an hour remaining and moved up to third place.

The final part of the session was dedicated to heavy-fuel runs.
Improvements were rare and Webber remained at the front. Alonso was 2nd ahead of Vettel. Massa and Schumacher completed the top five. Rosberg was sixth fastest with Hamilton 7th.

Button’s running was curtailed by a failure on an experimental exhaust system.

Buemi could only complete three laps due to a mechanical problem.