Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Japanese GP: Red Bull's Mark Webber says no one will dominate

Mark Webber believes there will be no dominant team in the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend, downplaying suggestions that Red Bull is much quicker than its rivals

The Australian topped the times in the second practice session by over two tenths of a second from McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who said he expected Red Bull to be the car to beat this weekend.

Webber's team-mate Sebastian Vettel was third quickest.

But Webber made it clear Red Bull has work to do before it can be as strong as McLaren has been in recent races.

"If we go through the last five races, and see who has been on the front row... I think he [Hamilton] knows the little tricks here and there in terms of mind games are not going to touch the sides with us, so we know we have got work to do," said Webber.

"They have a strong car, as have we, but I don't think anyone is dominant at the moment, certainly not us."

Despite his caution, the Red Bull driver was still pleased with his day's work.

"I think it went pretty well for us. It is a great circuit for us to get a nice clean rhythm on in terms of dry weather, first time of it being like that all weekend for a while. Plenty to go through, it was a pretty smooth Friday for us.

"I am pretty happy with it. We executed most of the runs we wanted to do plan wise."

He added: "We went through everything we needed to, the car ran very well, reliably, did the test on both tyres and a normal Friday. We appear to be pretty strong a the moment."

Red Bull has introduced a few new parts to its car for this weekend's event, and Webber reckons there is still work to do to get the best out of them.

"We are pushing hard, the factory is really, really on it. Not a huge amount, it is detailing, understanding the bits from Singapore as well, and then circuit-specific stuff that we really need to put on the car to work around here and have confidence around the whole lap.

"Not too bad but we still have areas where we can improve for sure."

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Japanese Grand Prix: Mark Webber goes quickest in second practice
Next article Japanese GP: Toro Rosso Friday quotes

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe