Free Practice 2: Red Bull Crushes All Competition at Silverstone!

The Red Bull drivers once again demonstrated their strength during Free Practice 2 of the British Grand Prix. Vettel and Webber dominated this first day, with Sebastian Vettel emerging as the leader at Silverstone by 14 hundredths of a second ahead of Mark Webber. The Australian is ahead of Adrian Sutil in the surprisingly performing Force India.

The weather is fair in England. It’s less than 20°C in the air and 28°C on the track, the sky is cloudy but not threatening. The forecast suggests the same type of weather for the rest of the weekend. In these conditions, strained by the ongoing war between the FIA and FOTA, it’s Red Bull Racing that comes out on top. The team, powered by Renault, has developed a few updates and Free Practice 2 supports the engineers’ choices. Just like this morning, it’s Sebastian Vettel who sets the fastest time this afternoon. He leads his teammate by 141 thousandths of a second. Webber, however, ends the session in the gravel trap after losing grip at Stowe on a curb.

Behind, the gap is widening with the competition and strangely, the first car ‘capable’ of keeping up with the Red Bulls is a Force India. The Indian team has its factory based in Silverstone and takes the opportunity to put on a big show. Adrian Sutil is therefore third, six-tenths behind Vettel. He is followed by Kazuki Nakajima for Williams. Alonso also limits the damage by ranking 5th, 781 thousandths behind the leader. He is closely followed by Rubens Barrichello in the first Brawn GP. The Brazilian is only 7 thousandths slower and significantly outperforms his teammate and championship leader since Button is only 13th. These four men are within a tenth of a second.

Another performance group ranks the drivers from 7th to 9th place. Hamilton, Trulli, and Rosberg are within a second of each other. Nelson Piquet Jr. rounds out the top 10 just ahead of Robert Kubica. The BMW driver, however, suffered from an engine problem, extremely slow at the start of the session due to an oil leak.

The first Ferrari in the standings is only 17th. Massa couldn’t do better and is more than a second and a half behind Vettel. His teammate is 18th. The Ferraris failed to find the pace after several tire tests and trialing a new front wing.

Bourdais is 16th, ahead of the Ferraris and leaves his teammate Buemi 8 tenths of a second behind. The Swiss is last, behind Fisichella.

Results of Free Practice 2 – British GP – Friday, June 19, 2009