Vettel and Red Bull on top at Silverstone

Eurosport - Fri, 19 Jun 19:45:00 2009

Sebastian Vettel topped first and second practice for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone while Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber secured two second-place finishes.

FORMULA 1 2009 - Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany drives during practice for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone - 0

While the Milton Keynes-based squad again dominated the second session in changeable conditions, their main rivals Brawn GP enjoyed a less satisfactory run-out.

Having secured third and fourth spots in first practice, Rubens Barrichello was sixth while World Championship leader Jenson Button, racing at his home grand prix, could only manage 14th.

Button, looking for a seventh win from the opening eight races this weekend, again spent the majority of the 90-minute session in the garage with mechanics amending the set-up on the BGP001.

"They're (Red Bull) too quick. I think we're going to have trouble this weekend," said team principal Ross Brawn.

Matters ended on a sour note for Webber, who spent most of the session in P1 before Vettel's leading run of one minute, 19.456 seconds.

With eight minutes remaining, the Australian's RB5 - like Vettel's sporting a new, wider nosecone - stopped at the end of the Hangar straight and marshals wheeled it behind the tyre wall.

Third was Force India's Adrian Sutil, the German impressing further after a decent 11th-place showing in the morning, while Williams' Japanese driver Kazuki Nakajima followed in fourth after ringing the changes after a nightmare first few laps.

Barrichello and twice world champion Fernando Alonso in the Renault R29 had a moment when the Brazilian held up the Spaniard as time ran down, but Alonso had his revenge on the following lap.

No sooner had Barrichello improved to fifth, Alonso went even quicker - the difference a miniscule seven-thousandths of a second - to snatch that spot by the end.

Lewis Hamilton improved on his eighth place in the opening session with seventh in the afternoon, while Jarno Trulli of Toyota followed. Williams' Nico Rosberg and Nelson Piquet Jr of Renault completed the top 10.

The Ferraris, two of only three cars running KERS so far this weekend along with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen, struggled in 17th and 18th, bettering only the lap-times of Giancarlo Fisichella and Sebastien Buemi.

Fisichella's woeful session was complete when Force India colleague Sutil contrived to run over the nosecone of his parked VJM02 in the garage after the chequered flag. It may now need to be changed.

Timo Glock of Toyota was 13th, Nick Heidfeld (BMW) 15th behind Button and Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso) 16th.

Join Eurosport-Yahoo for LIVE coverage of Saturday morning practice from 10:00 UK time then qualifying at 13:00 - and the race on Sunday!!

Jonathan Symcox / Eurosport

Comment 1 - 12 of 12

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  1. STEVE nice comment....not, what a foolish comment u­ just made bout motogp and rossi saying he should be­ forced out what a muppet u r, oh yeah fasinating yeah­ rite button wins 6 straight and all the cars last year­ with the best drivers r at the back.....yeah great.­ really exciting that the front car wins by almost 5­ mins haha. if u watched the motogp its by far more­ exciting, rossi has made it what it is with 100.000­ people turning up to nearly every race hes an­ ambassador for the sport u clearly know nothing, go­ away and stop writing gay comments bout things u­ clearly know nothing bout

    From Stuart, on Sat 20 Jun 8:24AM

  2. Switch to Moto GP? Oh sure, and watch a rerun of the­ last 9 years of Rossi domination.He's doing to Moto­ GP what Shumacher did to F1. BORING!!!! It's about­ time they forced him out, not because he's good as­ he surely is, but because he's holding the entire­ Moto GP scene back.I'm sorry but I find this season­ in F1 fascinating.

    From steve, on Sat 20 Jun 2:13AM

  3. its alright being first and second but that wasn't­ for the race just practice.

    From clive, on Sat 20 Jun 12:25AM

  4. switch to MOTO GP this F1 is @#$% ...................

    From R 1, on Fri 19 Jun 11:00PM

  5. go WEBBER take your first grandprix win

    From renie, on Fri 19 Jun 6:57PM

  6. Come on Button you can do it!

    From gerald344, on Fri 19 Jun 6:44PM

  7. Go Sutil!

    From Tempoe, on Fri 19 Jun 6:26PM

  8. Disappointed for Button, but he's still my­ favourite to win!

    From krazykopite, on Fri 19 Jun 5:43PM

  9. Personally i think anyone of 4 drivers could win on­ sunday.JB / RB /MW or SV....and the sutil is­ driving...dont count him out of some points, just hope­ force india uses aggresive tacktics.....Balls to the­ politics ....BRING ON THE RACING

    From andytmms, on Fri 19 Jun 5:11PM

  10. The updated RBR looks impressive:Adrian Newey is still­ the best inthe bussines, but let's wait for­ sutarday.Anyway, Vettel looks favourite to take the­ pole

    From alkoolikus1001, on Fri 19 Jun 5:10PM

  11. Dont be decived by these times, Button will get it­ right when it matters and take victory...again :D

    From Matthew B, on Fri 19 Jun 4:28PM

  12. the most exciting thing about this weekends race is­ goinng to be an interview between the poison dwarf­ (Bernie)and martin brundle

    From trevorharrison, on Fri 19 Jun 4:22PM
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