Mark Webber is back in his fancy Red Bull Racing computer game thingy. This time he’s giving us a preview of what to expect from this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. Well, apart from lots of fans for Fernando and a tough race for car and driver.
You can see the video below after the break.
After an unfulfilled Australian Grand Prix local hope Mark Webber felt he had something to prove in Malaysia. Webber dared to dream by making what proved to be an inspired tyre choice during a rain sodden qualifying that allowed the Australian to claim pole position. Could he win his third Formula One race?
No, sadly. An overly cautious start by Webber left the door open for a fast charging Sebastien Vettel to take the inside line into turn 1 and that was pretty much that. Webber’s cause wasn’t helped by a clumsy pit stop from his Red Bull team and the young remained unchallenged on the way to his German his sixth race win. Webber strolled home in a comfortable second place and, finally, Red Bull Racing delivered a result befitting their early season pace. In a minor consolation for Webber he set the fastet lap of the race on lap 53.
Nico Rosberg, who started from P2 on the grid, finished the race in third place, and in doing so earned the first podium finish for the newly formed Mercedes GP team. A nice collect for the bookies, there no doubt, with the early season money surely resting on Schumacher.
Following a dreadful qualifying for McLaren and Ferrari leaving all four drivers starting from P17 or behind, they were able to restore some pride, with Lewis Hamilton the pick crossing the line in sixth place. Hamilton was followed by current championship leader Felipe Massa and his McLaren teammate Jenson Button. Fernando Alonso finished outside of the top 10 and failed to add to his 2010 season tally. A full list of results is available at Formula1.com.
After the jump you will see more than 85 images from Sepang, all (except a couple of the Lotus pics) accessible in 2000px wallpaper-friendly sizing by clicking on the photo you want.
At Mark Webber’s civic reception earlier this week the point was made he likes to remind people he is from Queanbeyan and not Canberra. Well, it seems if Canberra Milk is writing the cheque that Webber’s loyalty can be shifted.
After the break—pardon the pun—is a 30 second television commercial currently on high rotation during Southern Cross Ten’s Formula One coverage in the Canberra region. It’s all a bit of fun and kudos to Webber who has no doubt appeared in this ad for much less than his international profile might demand.
Mark Webber quickly found his way to the top of the time sheets in his RB6 during pre-season testing at Barcelona overnight. Once Webber found his rhthym he was never headed and settled with a best time of 1:21.487, almost one full second ahead of his nearest rival, Nico Hulkenberg, Williams (1:22.407).
Webber’s Red Bull team were focusing on a race weekend simulation, including qualifying and full race-distance programs. Speaking on the RBR website Webber said, “We had a pretty good day of testing. We did some simulations and performance items in the morning and a race simulation in the afternoon. We had a precautionary stop in the middle of the race simulation because of a gearbox oil alarm, but the guys got the car turned around pretty quickly and we finished the session, so it wasn’t too bad.â€
Reliability seems to be the only concern for Red Bull Racing as both drivers have been consistently on the pace in pre-season testing so far.
Sebastien Vettel steps into the RB6 for the next two days of testing, while Webber will return for the final day on Sunday. A schedule of drivers can be seen HERE. You can follow the action when it resumes later tonight on twitter and autosport.com.
[Pics: Getty Images]
UPDATE: High resolution images NOW AVAILABLE
Red Bull have published these preview images of their new RB6 2010 racecar ahead of today’s official launch. With only a couple of hours to go until the full reveal, expect to see some higher res pics online very soon.
More of this very nice looking Red Bull machine after the break. From what we can see so far, the RB6 will be one of the nicest looking cars on the grid. Not that there’s any Aussie Mark Webber bias here at all!
[Source: RedBull.com]
Red Bull racing new boy Sebastien Vettel talks us through the the new Red Bull RB5 which he and our own Mark Webber will use to tackle the 2009 Formula One Season. It’s a very cool clip with the rule changes for the 2009 season explained and accompanied by clever graphics. Vettel promises the rule changes will return more responsibility to the drivers and increase overtaking. Let’s hope he is right.
You can also see the clip direct from the Red Bull Racing website.
(Thanks to Wes for the tip.)