
Like the morning session, Red Bull’s Mark Webber headed the second free practice in Barcelona.
The Australian took the lead of the order from early pacesetters Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Vitaly Petrov (Renault) , until the Red Bulls emerged on the soft Pirelli tyres, leaving Webber setting his mark (1:22.470) midway through the session.
Hamilton’s soft tyre run gave him 2nd place, only 0.039 shy of Webber – some three-tenths ahead of Championship leader, Sebastian Vettel. The Red Bull’s continued to display solid pace during their long run late in the session, aided by an RB7 treating its Pirelli’s delicately.
Jenson Button completed 32 laps on his way to 4th on the time sheets, albeit seven-tenths shy of the quickest run.
Fernando Alonso was the leading Ferrari with a best of 1:23.568. The Spaniard closed the Friday running in 5th, three places and seven-tenths clear of fellow Scuderia driver, Felipe Massa.
It was not the cleanest of sessions for the Brazilian, who complained of serious understeer through several of Barcelona’s high speed turns. Massa also had a couple of offs during practice, further hampering his running.
The red machines squeezed the Mercedes pair of Nico Rosberg (6th) and Michael Schumacher (7th).
Adrian Sutil had a heavily disrupted afternoon, due to a telemetry recording problem. The German completed 20 laps, the least of the runner, with a best of 1:27.123, stranding him 19th overall.
At the tail end of the sheets were the Hispania pair of Narain Karthikeyan and Vitantonio Liuzzi – both took the flag approximately seven seconds off the pace; a statistic that would see them outside the dreaded 107% barrier.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m22.470s 35 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m22.509s + 0.039 27 3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m22.826s + 0.356 37 4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m23.188s + 0.718 32 5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m23.568s + 1.098 34 6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m23.586s + 1.116 35 7. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m23.981s + 1.511 30 8. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m24.278s + 1.808 30 9. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m24.290s + 1.820 33 10. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m24.366s + 1.896 31 11. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m24.483s + 2.013 38 12. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m24.786s + 2.316 43 13. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m25.296s + 2.826 33 14. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m25.303s + 2.833 38 15. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m25.457s + 2.987 34 16. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m25.603s + 3.133 43 17. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m26.073s + 3.603 32 18. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m26.417s + 3.947 37 19. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m27.123s + 4.653 20 20. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m27.189s + 4.719 34 21. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m28.036s + 5.566 36 22. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m28.062s + 5.592 28 23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m29.469s + 6.999 28 24. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m29.476s + 7.006 31
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