GERMAN GRAND PRIX
Venue: Nurburgring ** Dates:** 10-12 July 2009 Coverage: Live coverage of Friday’s practice sessions, Saturday qualifying and Sunday’s race - which starts at 1300 BST - across BBC TV, radio and online platforms.Find full listings here
By Chris Whyatt
**Red Bull’s Mark Webber clocked the quickest lap time of the first practice session for the German Grand Prix at a cold Nurburgring on Friday morning.**Searching for his first GP win after 129 race starts, Webber was ahead of Brawn’s championship leader Jenson Button with one minute 33.082 seconds.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was third fastest as some drivers experienced trouble testing newly-updated cars.
World champion Lewis Hamilton was 13th in his vastly modified McLaren.
Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella came in fourth and fifth respectively but rarely, if ever, is practice a true indicator of potential race or qualifying form.
“Nurburgring’s got its own little microclimate, because the altitude’s quite high, so anything can happen at any time”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner
Webber’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel - who won the last Formula 1 race at Silverstone and is 25 points behind Button in the championship - was eighth as his Red Bull suffered electrical problems.
Brawn and Red Bull, who have largely dominated 2009 so far, have brought minor changes to Germany at the season’s half-way point - Brawn have revised front wing endplates - but some other teams have made significant adjustments as they bid to reign them in.
The aerodynamic tweaks Ferrari have made to their car looked to be working smoothly with Kimi Raikkonen sixth, just one tenth of a second behind Massa, who also has a new nose cone and chassis.
Yet Fernando Alonso was 10th as his Renault, which has a revised front wing, spent a lot of time in the garage having the front suspension looked at.
McLaren have a new front wing, diffuser and top bodywork - but Heikki Kovalainnen finished down in 18th while Hamilton’s Kers (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) failed early on.
With occasional rain and a track temperature of just 15 degrees, drivers struggled to get any heat in their tyres.
But Australia’s Webber, second at the British GP and fourth in the drivers’ championship, posted the quickest lap fairly early to top a practice session for the first time this season.
606: DEBATE
“Mark Webber has said that even if Sebastian Vettel beats him in Germany, Red Bull will not impose team orders on him…”
TLTIPS
“There’s similar conditions [to Silverstone], maybe even cooler here, so hopefully we can give Brawn a good run again,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.
"It’s got its own little microclimate here, because the altitude’s quite high, so anything can happen at any time.
"Both drivers are pretty pumped up and all those Schumacher fans seem to be turning into Sebastian Vettel fans, so here’s got a lot of local fans.
“But Mark for me is a real dark horse here. It would be great to see him win a race. He needs to get that monkey off his back.”