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F1: Webber bounces back in style Posted: 08 Apr 2011 05:03 PM PDT Red Bull's Mark Webber, followed by Lotus' Jarno Trulli, in action during the second free paractice of the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang yesterday. The Australian was in a class of his own after falling short in his home race two weeks ago and was on top of his game from the word go, pipping 2009 world champion Jenson Button to top spot in the afternoon session after totally blitzing the field with a time that was 1.6 seconds ahead of the second fastest McLaren of Lewis Hamilton in the morning session. The new Pirelli tyres also promised an incident packed weekend to follow with the marriage to the sport yet to reach honeymoon levels of intimacy, as a rather more than usual number of off track excursions and debates that followed suggested.
He said afterwards: "Tyre wear is different here compared to Melbourne." The practice sessions had given an indication of the unexpected to occur both in today's qualifying sessions and tomorrow's race, as displayed by Sauber's Venezuelan debutante Pastor Maldonado who first provided what would have been the biggest sensation to start the weekend when he topped the timesheets momentarily.
Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembrey has been made a busy man, needing solutions not just to the tyre supply concerns, but to an expectant press that have began piling the pressure on Formula One's new tyre supplier. "In competition, we'd ideally like to have a compound particularly just for this circuit. It is early days yet. Of course there's a big difference between the soft and hard compounds and we've had a few guys trying different things today.
Pirelli's new compound -- brought especially for the Malaysian Grand Prix -- was also tested by Webber, as he posted the fastest time of the day at one minute 36.876 seconds. Webber proved that he is a scrapper who performs better when he draws on his self-confessed "mongrel" spirit than by trying to stay cool, calm and collected. By finishing top yesterday, the Australian wiped out his frustrations at the season-opener in Melbourne. Webber finished fifth, equalling his two other best finishes at Albert Park but upset by his performance and that of his car, crossed the finish line and immediately parked his vehicle at the end of the pit lane. Webber, as expected, refused to talk about his Melbourne tantrum when he arrived in Kuala Lumpur and continued in the same vein yesterday. After topping the times, he said: "We're all pretty close, give or take a couple of tenths (of a second): who got traffic, who didn't, how their KERS worked. So far, so good, I'm towards the front somewhere." Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
F1: Hamilton claims Red Bull took it easy Posted: 08 Apr 2011 05:02 PM PDT McLaren-Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton makes a pit stop during his second practice session of the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang yesterday. The 2008 champion said he did not believe he and teammate Jenson Button, the 2009 winner were gaining on Red Bull despite performing strongly in yesterday's free practice ahead of tomorrow's Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix. "I think that's a lot of rubbish really. I am sure they have another half-a-second at least to pull out in qualifying," Hamilton said.
"I think it's been interesting. Whether it has been good? I don't know," Hamilton said. "We seem to be reasonably close, but I'm sure the Red Bulls will pull something out in qualifying. Nonetheless, we found some good things in the set-up of the car."
"I don't know where we are in relation to Red Bull. We don't know how much fuel they are running, as always. It's a normal Friday comment, I know, but it's the way it always is," he said. "We just do our own thing and for me the balance improved a lot today (yesterday), and that's the important thing. The good thing is we found that we made positive steps." -- AFP |
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