Webber shines in the wet

Rain rules at Spa

By

27 August 2011 - 12:06
Webber shines in the wet

While the teams were hoping for some dry running this morning, they were greeted by rain at Spa-Francorchamps.

It was still raining when the track opened for the third and final free practice session of the weekend.

In these conditions, the drivers headed out for a simple installation lap, to check all the systems, and came back in the heaven of their respective garages.

There was no point for them to do more than that, even more so considering the restricted number of full wet and intermediate tyres available to them. They obviously preferred to save them, in case it would be raining for this afternoon’s qualifying session.

Jenson Button reported the conditions were “worse than what we had in Canada” and would cause a race to be red-flagged.

Rain kept pouring down for a while and the track remained desperately silent for the brave spectators. Daniel Ricciardo briefly broke the silence with 38 minutes remaining. As he was making his way back in the pits, Jaime Alguersuari came back out for a proper. He was soon followed by his teammate Sébastien Buemi.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel joined them. The Williams team also sent its cars on track. More drivers followed.

Buemi set the early pace but was demoted to 2nd by Mark Webber. The Australian’s benchmark was soon lowered by Alguersuari and then Buemi. As the Toro Rosso drivers pitted, the Force India drivers took over at the front.

The session slowly came to life as the conditions slightly improved. With five minutes left, the Ferrari drivers were the only drivers yet to post a time on the board. At the sharp end of the grid, Mark Webber was leading from Alguersuari, Button and Vettel.

Hamilton moved up to P2 under the chequered flag, 0.058s behind Webber. Alguersuari remained third with Button fourth and Vettel fifth. Alonso didn’t complete a timed lap.

Pos.DriverTeamTimeGapLaps
01 Mark Webber Red Bull Renault 2.08.988 7
02 Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 2.09.046 +0.058 8
03 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso Ferrari 2.09.931 +0.943 16
04 Jenson Button McLaren Mercedes 2.10.257 +1.269 7
05 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Renault 2.10.402 +1.414 9
06 Sébastien Buemi Toro Rosso Ferrari 2.10.580 +1.592 15
07 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 2.10.837 +1.849 12
08 Adrian Sutil Force India Mercedes 2.11.437 +2.449 13
09 Bruno Senna Lotus Renault GP 2.11.664 +2.676 14
10 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 2.11.667 +2.679 10
11 Paul Di Resta Force India Mercedes 2.11.874 +2.886 13
12 Heikki Kovalainen Team Lotus Renault 2.13.036 +4.048 15
13 Pastor Maldonado Williams Cosworth 2.13.074 +4.086 12
14 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber Ferrari 2.13.182 +4.194 12
15 Vitaly Petrov Lotus Renault GP 2.13.290 +4.302 15
16 Rubens Barrichello Williams Cosworth 2.13.778 +4.790 12
17 Sergio Perez Sauber Ferrari 2.14.334 +5.346 14
18 Jarno Trulli Team Lotus Renault 2.14.682 +5.694 11
19 Jérôme d’Ambrosio Marussia Virgin Racing Cosworth 2.17.159 +8.171 12
20 Timo Glock Marussia Virgin Racing Cosworth 2.18.039 +9.051 10
21 Daniel Ricciardo HRT F1 Cosworth 2.19.001 +10.013 12
22 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT F1 Cosworth 2.19.597 +10.609 14
23 Felipe Massa Ferrari 2.22.454 +13.466 7
24 Fernando Alonso Ferrari -.—.--- +-.--- 5

Search

Formula 1 news

Pics

Videos