Webber finishes Silverstone Friday session on top

With the two Mercedes in the top six, championship leader Lewis Hamilton's leading McLaren was eighth after suffering a number of off-track excursions.

Friday marked the first time Formula 1 cars had tackled Silverstone's brand-new Arena circuit in anger, with the track now turning right with a rapid right-hander at Abbey followed by a left-handed Farm Curve, which has been the scene of many many a moment today, both at its entrance and exit. Off the track, spectators made the most of highly enjoyable air temperatures of 28°C (82°F).

With Vettel having set the benchmark early on, Webber proved to be untouchable as his best lap time was not threatened, with Alonso almost four tenths of a second down. Vitaly Petrov was the first Renault in seventh although team-mate Robert Kubica's car has appeared to avoid any dramatic moments for the duration of the day.

That could not be said for most of his rivals, though, as a number of competitors ran into trouble at Abbey as well as Becketts, with Hamilton suffering two almost identical moments in the second half of the session by having to skip across the grass on the fast exit – a moment copied by Petrov as Kobayashi and Alguersuari also clipped the lawn.

Hamilton with a modified helmet design was the leading McLaren in eighth placeHowever, the largest spin of the day was for Vitantonio Liuzzi as the Italian having taken his cockpit back from tester Paul di Resta – suffered a spectacular sideways moment at Abbey. Vettel also ran into trouble, taking too much inside kerb at Stowe before consequently spinning in the middle of the corner and having to evacuate to the infield.

At Mercedes, Rosberg finished ahead of Schumacher as Race Engineer Andrew Shovlin ensured that the 7-time World Champion did not brake whilst also applying the throttle, with a fear that the engine could switch off.

At the tail end of the timesheets, Sakon Yamamoto finished 23rd for Hispania as he replaces Bruno Senna for what has been confirmed as this weekend's event only. Heikki Kovalainen was sidelined in the final minutes due to a power steering issue with the Lotus.

Source: f1racing.net