Webber ends Friday practice on top

Mark Webber edged out Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button© Getty Images

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Mark Webber struck an early psychological advantage for Red Bull on Friday by topping the timesheets from Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button after the second session of free practice at Spa.

After the torrential rain of the morning session, conditions improved markedly for the start of the second session and the circuit saw a flurry of activity from the outset. As the conditions and track temperature improved, so the lap times tumbled with Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber all trading blows at the top.

Spa being Spa, however, the rain did not stay away for long and it returned with half an hour of the session remaining but not before Webber leapfrogged Alonso and Button at the top of the times. That, effectively, put an end to the day's meaningful running but teams enjoyed a long enough window of opportunity to experiment with balance and car set-up on slick, intermediate and wet tyres.

Lewis Hamilton finished the session fourth fastest ahead of Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg. Schumacher, who finished the first session on top, was 11th fastest behind Sebastian Vettel.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time       Gap       Laps

 1.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m50.321s            22

 2.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m50.461s  + 0.140s  18

 3.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m50.770s  + 0.449s  9

 4.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m50.838s  + 0.517s  9

 5.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m51.218s  + 0.897s  14

 6.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m51.242s  + 0.921s  22

 7.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m51.655s  + 1.334s  20

 8.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  1m51.725s  + 1.404s  17

 9.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m51.751s  + 1.430s  8

10.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m51.790s  + 1.469s  13

11.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m51.922s  + 1.601s  22

12.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth     1m52.750s  + 2.429s  20

13.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m52.780s  + 2.459s  25

14.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m52.911s  + 2.59 s  24

15.  Sébastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m53.009s  + 2.688s  24

16.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m53.156s  + 2.835s  17

17.  Bruno Senna         Renault               1m53.835s  + 3.514s  20

18.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Renault         1m55.051s  + 4.730s  20

19.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m55.494s  + 5.173s  22

20.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault         1m56.202s  + 5.881s  15

21.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m56.816s  + 6.495s  20

22.  Tonio Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth          1m57.450s  + 7.129s  19

23.  Daniel Ricciardo    HRT-Cosworth          1m57.612s  + 7.291s  24

24.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               2m02.234s  + 11.913s 12

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