2011 Spanish Grand Prix (Rd 5, Free Practice 2, May 20th)

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