2011 GERMANY GP: RED BULL STRIKES BACK, WEBBER FASTEST ON FP2

Webber wants victory at Nurburgring

Mark Webber was quickest for Red Bull in the second Friday practice session for the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. Webber's time of 1:31.711 was nearly 0.168s quicker than Alonso's effort, as they were the only two drivers to go faster than Alonso's morning effort. Sebastian Vettel was third once again, 0.2s further back, while Felipe Massa was fourth on a 1:32.354 as Ferrari and Red Bull set the headline pace.

The two Mercedes made late jumps to complete the top six, Schumacher ahead of Nico Rosberg, showing some good pace. There was a scare moment for Scumacher and Alonso late in the session, as Spaniard tried to dive down the inside of Schumacher in to turn seven and lost the rear end of the car as Schumacher turned in. Alonso took to the grass and just avoided side-swiping the Mercedes in what was a close escape from some heavy damage.

The best of the McLarens was back in seventh in Lewis Hamilton's hands, while Jenson Button had to sit out the final 20 minutes with an issue on a development exhaust and was only 11th. McLaren was more competitive on the long, heavy fuel runs though, with Hamilton setting lap times comparative to those ahead of him.

Renault was another team to explore exhaust possibilities, with Nick Heidfeld testing a new rear-exiting system as opposed to Vitaly Petrov who was running the team's usual front-exiting solution. There was no big gain to be had for either driver though, as the pair finished the session just 0.040s apart.

Pos    Driver                Team                  Time        Gap  Laps
 1.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m31.711s          34
 2.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m31.879s  + 0.168  38
 3.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m32.084s  + 0.373  28
 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m32.354s  + 0.643  36
 5.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m32.411s  + 0.700  31
 6.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m32.557s  + 0.846  32
 7.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m32.724s  + 1.013  28
 8.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault                1m33.098s  + 1.387  17
 9.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                1m33.138s  + 1.427  22
10.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m33.211s  + 1.500  34
11.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m33.225s  + 1.514  17
12.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m33.299s  + 1.588  34
13.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m34.113s  + 2.402  34
14.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1m34.344s  + 2.633  34
15.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m34.487s  + 2.776  37
16.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m34.491s  + 2.780  35
17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth      1m34.996s  + 3.285  35
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault          1m35.753s  + 4.042  42
19.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth        1m36.940s  + 5.229  32
20.  Karun Chandhok        Lotus-Renault          1m37.248s  + 5.537  33
21.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth        1m37.313s  + 5.602  33
22.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth           1m38.145s  + 6.434  31
23.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth           1m40.737s  + 9.026   5
24.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari     No time              3