Webber concludes Friday practice on top

Drivers and teams resumed their preparations for the British GP this afternoon with a second 90-minute practice session.

Many of them got back to work as soon as the track was opened and it wasn’t long before times were posted on the board.

Kubica, Sutil, Button and Barrichello traded the quickest lap at first. Both Ferraris of Alonso and Massa then took over at the front after fifteen minutes of running, while both Red Bulls remained in the pits.

His second flying lap saw Mark Webber smash the benchmark time held by Alonso as the Australian stopped the clock in 1’32’’118. It didn’t take long for Sebastian Vettel to join his teammate at the front with a 1’32’’509.

Webber went even faster – 1’31’’973 – and was leading from Vettel, Rosberg, Alonso and Massa with one hour remaining. Alonso then moved up to P2, splitting the Red Bulls, but Vettel retook P2 with just over thirty minutes remaining. The Ferrari driver was then relegated down to fourth by Nico Rosberg.

At this point, Webber and Vettel were the only ones to have lapped under the 1’32 bracket. Alonso soon joined them with a 1’31’’949 and then managed to go quicker than Vettel to split the Red Bull pair once again.

Although he was unable to come back on track in the last minutes of the session because of a problem on his RB6, Webber comfortably held on to first spot and concluded Friday practice on top. Alonso was second fastest with Vettel third.

Massa and Rosberg completed the top five. Michael Schumacher went sixth fastest. Petrov, Hamilton and Sutil rounded off the top ten.

It was a rather low-key session from both Robert Kubica (11th) and Jenson Button (13th).

The Lotus team had some mechanical troubles in the afternoon with Trulli able to complete only three laps and Kovalainen stopping on track a few minutes before the end of the session.

Replacing Bruno Senna this weekend, Sakon Yamamoto set the 23st fastest time and was 1.2s slower than his teammate Karun Chandhok.