Webber plays down Friday times

Williams have been one of the surprises of the season so far thanks to their competitive showings, but Webber was only 14th in today's practice while his teammate Nico Rosberg finished down in 22nd.

The team's third driver, however, showed promising form and posted the second fastest time of the day.

Webber says the team will show their true strenght on Saturday.

"We always know we are going to be well off the pace in terms of Fridays with our programme, that is where we have been with the last two races on Fridays, we should be more competitive tomorrow and Sunday," said Webber after practice.

"It is really for me to fine tune what I want from the car, most of the information, so we can rake through the information from Alex's car."

Williams qualified on the second row of the grid in Malaysia, but Webber believes the third row should be a more realistic goal tomorrow.

"I think the front row will be a challenge," he added. "Renault obviously look very strong and there are a few other people, so like I said, after the first few rows it is very tight on times so it could be the third row or it could be a bit further back, we just have to wait and see.

"And strategy will play a part, you don't want to be artificially up the grid with a lighter car so we just need to see what is the best strategy for us to complete the race the best on Sunday.

"The most important thing today is to get information on tyre and chassis, the engine is always going to be there for us, we know what power we can get out of it when we wind it up and what we are going to do with it tomorrow and Sunday.

"The most important thing is chassis and tyres and we can give the engine a bit of a harder time tomorrow and Sunday. We will do the same at Imola, the best way for us to do the mileage is on Saturday and Sunday."