Spanish GP – Free Practice 2: Webber Outpaces Hamilton

At the start of this second free practice session, the weather remains fine with the track heated to 32°C. After trying out the various upgrades brought to Barcelona this morning, McLaren announces it will field its final car for the weekend.

As often, the drivers from the middle or back of the pack are the first to set out, and Alguersuari quickly sets the first benchmark time at 1:29.858. Felipe Massa significantly improves this time with a 1:27.056, but it will yield to the battering of Fernando Alonso, who records the best time at 1:25.707, then 1:25.445.

After fifteen minutes of testing, Paul di Resta sets his first timed lap of the day after watching, as a spectator, Nico Hülkenberg’s run while Lewis Hamilton charges for the best time and finishes his lap in 1:25.236: best time. The Red Bull drivers, meanwhile, are beyond 10th place but are doing long stints.

Vitaly Petrov joins his teammate, Nick Heidfeld, at the top of the standings, with the two Lotus Renault drivers in 4th and 6th positions respectively. But, a few minutes later, Pastor Maldonado, on soft tires, breaks the 1:26 minute barrier on a lap and moves into 4th position on the timesheet.

After half an hour, Hamilton maintains the best time at 1:25.236, ahead of Alonso, Maldonado, Button, Petrov, Alguersuari, Massa, Heidfeld, Perez, Barrichello, Buemi, Kobayashi, Vettel, Webber, Di Resta, Sutil, Schumacher, Rosberg, D’Ambrosio, and Glock, with the two Virgin cars ahead of the Team Lotus and HRT drivers.

On soft tires, Vitaly Petrov is the first man to go under the 85-second mark per lap with a time of 1:24.786 while Heikki Kovalainen and Pastor Maldonado nearly collide in turn 2.

On their side, just like their colleagues at Red Bull, the Mercedes drivers are keeping a low profile at the start of the second free practice session: Rosberg and Schumacher are in 17th and 19th place respectively but are working on long stints.

The drivers remain, however, at a respectable distance from the best time of the winter tests achieved by Michael Schumacher, under the 1:22 mark, but most of the top teams have not yet fitted the soft tires. This is rectified with Sebastian Vettel, who obliterates Vitaly Petrov’s timed lap with a 1:22.826 and logically takes the lead. On the next lap, the Red Bull driver improves his first two sectors but cannot maintain his advantage in the third sector.

Only Webber seems able to challenge his teammate’s supremacy on the clock and takes first place with a time of 1:22.470. Sergio Perez improves his own time on soft tires and takes 4th position, although nearly two seconds behind the fastest RB7.

While the other Top Teams put on soft tires, Felipe Massa had a big scare by skimming the tire barrier as he went off into the gravel at turn 5: “That was close. Very close,” said the Ferrari driver over the radio.

The Mercedes drivers nudged the nose of their W02 cars into 4th and 5th place, just behind Webber, Vettel, and Button, with the McLaren driver still trailing more than 0.7 seconds behind the Australian.

As the last half hour begins, Mark Webber still holds the best time and is ahead of Lewis Hamilton, the third man to go under one minute 23 and the second best time. Following are Vettel, Button, Rosberg, Schumacher, Kobayashi, Heidfeld, Perez, Petrov. Fernando Alonso, in 10th place, is ahead of Rubens Barrichello’s Williams, while Felipe Massa is 15th.

In the garages, Adrian Sutil, with the 20th provisional time, is waiting for his team to resolve issues encountered on the single-seater.

Sebastian Vettel begins his third stint of the afternoon, the second on soft tires, but does not improve: the RB7 is loaded with a full race fuel and has fitted scrubbed tires.

Ferrari drivers, on the other hand, cannot get below the 1 minute 23 mark: Felipe Massa is complaining about understeer in turns 3 and 9, while Fernando Alonso is not favored by the traffic.

The tension has noticeably decreased over the past few minutes, as the teams focus on evaluating the soft tires with a full tank of fuel, with only the Ferraris remaining in their garages.

15 minutes before the checkered flag, Lewis Hamilton sets off for a long stint of 10 to 12 laps, and the end of this Free Practice 2 session increasingly resembles a dress rehearsal for Sunday’s race, with some overtaking on track as the Ferrari drivers return to the track for a final stint on soft tires, until the checkered flag.

Narain Karthikeyan livens up the end of the session: the Indian driver is struggling in every corner.

Lewis Hamilton seems to be once again the only one capable of challenging the dominance of the Red Bulls: his times rival those of Webber and Vettel at the end of this session, even though the exact fuel loads are unknown.

No one else improves and the checkered flag falls on Mark Webber’s best time, who continues to mark his territory against the competition.

Results of Free Practice 2 – 2011 Spanish Grand Prix: