Webber positive despite lost track time

The Red Bull driver managed just four laps in the first session before he crashed against the wall and damaged his car.

With just one hour between practice sessions, Webber's mechanics had to work very fast to get the car ready, and the Australian returned to the track with just 27 minutes of practice left.

Despite that, Webber still post the 11th fastest time after 15 laps.

"My first session was much too short, as I got into the little chicane a bit too hot and hit the wall," said Webber. "I should have gone down the escape road, but hindsight is a great thing. I damaged the front right corner and also the steering rack, which gave the guys a lot of work to do in a short space of time.

"I owe them one. Even though we lost a lot of track time, I feel we've made a reasonable recovery. There's still quite a bit of work to do, but at least I've now got a good idea about the circuit.

"Running at night seems okay, but I might make a few tweaks to my visor and tear-offs."

Teammate David Coulthard finished as 15th fastest, and the Scot was one of many drivers claiming the track was very bumpy.

And Coulthard is predicting an incident-filled race.

"It's like the cobbled streets of Paris and very unforgiving, I think there will be a lot of incidents during the race," said Coulthard. "Unlike Valencia, which was a smooth circuit with very good kerbs, the kerbs here are very aggressive, especially at Turn Ten.

"We've already seen a few people having incidents this morning and I think we'll see more of the same story during the weekend.

"We've been playing around with the set-up of the car and the biggest influence at the moment is the tyres and getting the tyres to come in, in order to get a clear lap."