A great unknown and a great he knows all too well are shaping as Mark Webber’s stumbling blocks in this weekend’s Australian Formula One Grand Prix.
With wet weather expected on Saturday for qualifying and unsettled weather tipped for Sunday’s season-opening race, the conditions will have a massive say for Webber after a promising start to the event in Friday practice.
But practice also showed Webber’s Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel – the three-time defending world champion – is in the sort of sizzling form to give himself every chance of a championship four-peat.
While Webber was good, the sport’s benchmark Vettel was better.
The Australian set the fastest lap midway through the second practice session, before Vettel jumped him a few minutes later with a 1min 25.908sec rocket.
Both times held until the end of the session, although ultimately, qualifying will be key to Webber’s fate of finally cracking a podium finish in his 12th Australian GP.
While saying it’s too early to get “fired up” about Red Bull’s season, he is convinced he has a nice car package. Although he warned what lies ahead with Saturday’s weather could even things up for his home race.
“Qualifying will probably have a bit of a mixed grid tomorrow given the conditions,” Webber said.
“There’ll be a lot of decisions when we’re running on circuit over the next few days, that’s for sure. We need to get as many of those right to get the maximum result.”
Webber, whose only Friday blemish was a minor spin late in the session, has a best finish of fourth at his home GP.
Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo was 14th fastest in the second practice session – improving markedly on his session-one times and importantly outpacing Toro Rosso teammate Jean-Eric Vergne.