Webber leads final practice at wet Spa

2011 Belgian Grand Prix third practice

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Mark Webber, Red Bull, Spa-Francorchamps, 2011

Mark Webber was fastest in another wet practice session at Spa-Francorchamps.

Rain was already falling as practice began. The first drivers to go out did installation laps on intermediates tyres but those who came out later used wet weather tread.

By the time Jenson Button came out to do his installation lap the circuit was extremely wet: “like a lake”, said Button over his radio, adding that the conditions were worse than they had been in Canada.

After 20 minutes the rain ease and Daniel Ricciardo came out of the pits, the last driver to complete his installation lap.

Halfway through the session the track finally started to get busier, with the Toro Rossos and Red Bulls coming out first.

In the heavy wet conditions drivers were taking two-and-a-quarter minutes to lap the 7km Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber took time to sample the circuit in wet conditions while McLaren and Ferrari’s drivers stayed in the pits.

The Force India drivers swapped fastest sector times, the VJM04s looking particularly quick in the first and third sectors.

Adrian Sutil set the fastest time to begin with while team mate Paul di Resta had a spin at Pouhon. But di Resta returned to the track to set the fastest time.

Michael Schumacher was one of the first drivers to try intermediate tyres and went second-fastest behind di Resta. But they were demoted by Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso.

Webber returned to the track to head the times with a 2’08.988, returning to the pits with four minutes to go.

The last driver who looked able to beat his time was Lewis Hamilton, who fell short by five-hundredths of a second with his final effort.

Ferrari did little running in the wet session and Fernando Alonso didn’t set a time at all.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGap
12Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault2’08.9887
23Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes2’09.0460.0588
319Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari2’09.9310.94316
44Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes2’10.2571.2697
51Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault2’10.4021.4149
618Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari2’10.5801.59215
78Nico RosbergMercedes2’10.8371.84912
814Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes2’11.4372.44913
99Bruno SennaRenault2’11.6642.67614
107Michael SchumacherMercedes2’11.6672.67910
1115Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes2’11.8742.88613
1220Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault2’13.0364.04815
1312Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth2’13.0744.08612
1416Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari2’13.1824.19412
1510Vitaly PetrovRenault2’13.2904.30215
1611Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth2’13.7784.79012
1717Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari2’14.3345.34614
1821Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault2’14.6825.69411
1925Jerome D’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth2’17.1598.17112
2024Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth2’18.0399.05110
2122Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth2’19.00110.01312
2223Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth2’19.59710.60914
236Felipe MassaFerrari2’22.45413.4667
245Fernando AlonsoFerrariNo time5

Complete practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Sat/FriLaps
1Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault2’09.7921’50.3212’08.988+18.66737
2Fernando AlonsoFerrari2’07.0551’50.46136
3Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes2’02.7401’50.7702’10.257+19.48724
4Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes2’04.3011’50.8382’09.046+18.20824
5Felipe MassaFerrari2’04.7281’51.2182’22.454+31.23631
6Nico RosbergMercedes1’54.8291’51.2422’10.837+19.59550
7Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari2’07.4811’51.6552’14.334+22.67950
8Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’51.72518
9Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes2’13.0581’51.7512’11.874+20.12330
10Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault2’03.7521’51.7902’10.402+18.61232
11Michael SchumacherMercedes1’54.3551’51.9222’11.667+19.74546
12Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth2’08.9181’52.7502’13.074+20.32442
13Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari2’06.8861’52.7802’13.182+20.40253
14Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari2’06.5831’52.9112’09.931+17.0257
15Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari2’08.2391’53.0092’10.580+17.57154
16Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth2’05.3911’53.1562’13.778+20.62241
17Bruno SennaRenault2’14.3401’53.8352’11.664+17.82942
18Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault2’08.2331’55.0512’14.682+19.63145
19Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth2’12.2781’55.4942’18.039+22.54546
20Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’56.2022’13.036+16.83430
21Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth2’12.7721’56.8162’17.159+20.34346
22Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth2’12.3891’57.4502’19.597+22.14743
23Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth2’14.9331’57.6122’19.001+21.38947
24Vitaly PetrovRenault2’13.6012’02.2342’13.290+11.05637
25Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes2’04.6632’11.437+6.77431
26Karun ChandhokLotus-Renault2’13.09011

2011 Belgian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    16 comments on “Webber leads final practice at wet Spa”

    1. Anyone has details on senna vs petrov?

      1. What do you want to know?

        1. Did they go out around the same time? The time difference just seems huge. I’m wondering how much weather played into this.

        2. Jarred Walmsley
          27th August 2011, 11:27

          Just wondering Keith why is Senna not in the combined practice times?

          1. He is now!

    2. do we know whether Webber was on new or used tyres. Vettel, Hamilton and Button were all on used but i didnt hear anything about Mark

      1. He was on wets, the track was wet. Whether or not he was on used or new rubber is irrelevant in those conditions.

        To answer your question, the logical thing would be that he’s on a used set. Why would he use up a new set when qualifying is set to be wet, and the race will probably be rain affected?

        1. hmm, so…

          “Why would he use up a new set when qualifying is set to be wet, and the race will probably be rain affected?”

          Well, maybe because…

          “Whether or not he was on used or new rubber is irrelevant in those conditions.”

          Seriously though, being on a new set rather than a used set would have given a significant speed advantage, and yes, whilst you would have thought he was using used, I seem to remember Mark doing a lot more wet running yesterday and perhaps this wasn’t possible?

    3. Here’s hoping Mark’s form continues through to qualifying and the race.

    4. Interesting to see that the McLaren drivers did the fewest laps of anybody but Chandok and Hulkenberg. It looks like they are pretty conservative with their material.

    5. Well, I enjoyed watching it, but I still don’t know much about their relative speeds, will be nice to see things developing in qualifying.

    6. So we know the FI guys might have gone for a low downforce setup, probalby hoping to be able to make the most of a dry race. And Ferrari must feel pretty confident.

      And the top teams count on doing qualifying on inters or wets even saving them for that.

    7. Senna’s times are missing on the complete pratice times chart

    8. Qualifying is going to be very interesting. I have no idea who’s going to grab pole!

    9. What´s the forecast for qualifying?

    10. The two Ferraris in the last two places look funny ;)

    Comments are closed.