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Webber downplays 'diffuser gang' pace

Mark Webber is not expecting the teams using the controversial diffusers to be ahead of the pack at Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, despite their pace in practice on Friday

Williams' Nico Rosberg topped the times in the afternoon session ahead of Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello and Toyota's Jarno Trulli.

All three teams are using the diffusers that led rivals to lodge a protest over their legality on Thursday.

Despite their dominance on Friday, Red Bull Racing driver Webber reckons it will be a different picture in the race.

"I think no one here knows the ultimate pace until we get going on Sunday and even then we might see teams not show full pace if they have something up their sleeve," said Webber.

"So they will be keep this advantage legality wise, which so far they seem to have done, but I don't fear two different championships in the race.

"It will still be a competitive GP and it should not get in the way of what the ruling is. The drivers, we can't do much about this stuff, it is up to the boffins."

Webber was the only driver not using the controversial diffuser to break into the top seven in the second session. The other places were occupied by either Toyota, Williams or Brawn GP drivers.

The Australian did not have a perfect start to the weekend, running less laps than he was hoping for.

"It didn't go that well in the first session, not many laps in because of a problem with a seal on the drive shaft," he added. "I was keen to do more running in the second session and it was going to plan until we had another small problem with the exhaust.

"Not ideal with reliability, but not bad pace wise. We'll see how it goes the rest of weekend."

Webber said he was hoping the reliability problems would not be there by Sunday and admitted he was surprised by how many issues the team had today.

"The amount of them, yeah," said Webber when asked if he was surprised by the problems. "Sebastian (Vettel) had a few today, so it was quite a few compared to the laps we did. We need to make sure they are not there on Sunday."

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