Hydraulics and driveshaft problem for Red Bull drivers
It was a rather difficult first day of the Australian Grand Prix weekend at Albert Park for the Red Bull Racing F1 Team. Sebastian Vettel suffered a hydraulics problem in the first session while home driver Mark Webber had a driveshaft problem which limited the team's run-time.
Car 14 Mark Webber, 1st Practice P17 2nd Practice P4
"It's great to be back in Australia. I'm proud of the Australian GP; they put on an excellent show here for everyone and it's good for the local people. They've had a tough few months recently with the fires, so I hope they enjoy the weekend. My day today was a bit hit and miss to be honest, as we had a few technical problems with the car. I didn't get many laps in during the first session, but the second was a lot better. We completed more laps and tried both types of tyres, so we've got some good stuff to go through tonight. It was quite interesting to see how low the sun was through the trees towards the end of the second session, it was good to run with that to get used to it for Sunday."
Car 15 Sebastian Vettel, 1st Practice P20 2nd Practice P8
"We had a bad session in this morning's practice and didn't get too much running, due to a hydraulics problem. In the afternoon we were able to get some laps in, but unfortunately I made a stupid mistake towards the end of the practice, so we couldn't run through our programme. Nevertheless, it's looking
allright with what we've done compared to the time we had on the circuit, so let's see how we go tomorrow. Like always on Fridays, it's a bit difficult to interpret everyone's lap times, but I think we can be happy."
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "After the off-track activities of the last couple of days, it was good to get the weekend under way. There were a couple of issues in the first session - a hydraulics leak with Sebastian and a driveshaft problem with Mark limited our run-time. In the second session both drivers showed good pace and we worked through our programme.Unfortunately Sebastian had a small off, which ended his day early, but both drivers seem comfortable in the car and their pace was respectable."
STATISTICS
MARK WEBBER
First Practice Session
Position: 17, Best Time: 1:29.081, Laps: 7, Chassis No. 2
Second Practice Session
Position: 4, Best Time 1:26.370, Laps: 30, Chassis No. 2
SEBASTIAN VETTEL
First Practice Session
Position: 20, Best Time: 1:32.784, Laps: 4, Chassis No. 3
Second Practice Session
Position: 8, Best Time: 1:26.740, Laps: 19, Chassis No. 3