In Singapore last year Mark Webber’s race was compromised by a double gear selection and fried gearbox fault that the team subsequently blamed on static electricity generated by trams passing underneath the track. This time the team has left nothing to chance and added an extra metal underplate to safeguard the gearbox.
But in free practice today, ahead of the second running of the night-race, the Australian was again derailed, this time by his own hand.
Webber was in impressive form in the opening free practice session, finishing third behind the twin Brawns of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button and had looked like taking that good form further in the second session when midway through he lost control in the final corner, spun and clipped the wall on the pit straight.
“I was pushing a little bit too hard in the second practice, it was a bit slippery off line and I went off in the last corner and into the pit wall,” he said. “The car was going well up until then; I was quick and both Sebastian and I had pretty good practice sessions.”
Despite missing the remainder of the second session Webber’s previous quickest lap was still good enough to secure sixth place on the timesheet and he insisted the RB5 is on the pace in the city state.
“I would have liked to have done a bit more mileage, but in the end we still learned quite a bit and we’ll be back tomorrow,” he said. “I think it should be a good race for us, it will be interesting as the tyres are not massively easy to handle here, so we’ll have to work on that tonight. But, overall, not too bad.”
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