Red Bull Racing came out of Friday on top with Sebastian Vettel fastest in the Practice Two. Mark Webber ended the session early after hitting the wall on the entry to the start-finish straight, but professed himself happy with his – and the RB5’s – pace, and used the early finish to give us an exclusive insight into the circuit.
“It’s a bit slippery off-line! I’d been doing quite well in that final corner, pushed a little bit too hard and simply ran out of talent! It isn’t a disaster as we got plenty of good information from the day, and I have Seb’s telemetry to use as well.
“Of course it isn’t ideal to end up in the wall, and it’s hard on the guys who now have a lot of work to do on the car – I don’t like to be the one who gave them it to do, but it’s the first time this year I’ve smashed the RB5 though my own fault, so I’ll go away, have a good nights sleep and get properly focussed for tomorrow.
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“Losing that bit of running won’t have an effect on qualifying. More would have been useful for the race, but there are plenty of guys who have had worse Friday’s than me that have gone on to do OK on Sunday. The good news is that both Sebastian and myself have been quick. Actually, we’re a lot better than we expected to be, so overall we’re pretty happy with how things are working out. The guys have done a good job with the upgrade. The race itself is going to be very, very interesting though, because the tyres aren’t massively easy to handle.
“The lap itself is complicated and uneven. The braking into Turn One is very bumpy and we will have to be watchful of the pit exit. It’s a little bit tight, but street circuits are always compromised by buildings, trees and whatever, so a slow pit exit feeding onto the line is just something you have to live with.
“The sequence of Turns One, Two and Three is like threading a needle, you have to be very precise. Then it’s onto a short straight down to the big right-hander at Turn Five. The long straight that follows is very, very bumpy all the way to the third gear Turn Seven. Then things start to get really interesting.
“You’re into some really tight, twisty stuff and a very busy part of the lap into Turns Eight and Nine which is a right-left combination. Then we accelerate up to one of the most hideous chicanes on the entire calendar – but it’s the same for everyone so it doesn’t matter how bad it is – you have to jump the kerbs and then you’re into another little chicane almost immediately.
“Following that there’s a hairpin onto the Esplanade Bridge – I think – then another big, big stop, careful to not lock the rear wheels for the right hander; then more chicanes all the way through the Bay Complex and then, finally the last corner – where I obviously need to do a better job.”
“In all it’s a very challenging job for the drivers and one that I hope Red Bull can do well on Sunday.”
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