The seemingly unstoppable Jenson Button may be the home favourite for tomorrow's British Grand Prix, but he will be aware of the continued threat from his Red Bull rivals. With updates to their cars, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber are fired up to stop the Brawn GP driver from making it seven wins out of eight races so far this season.
While Red Bull have been the main challengers to Brawn this season, their new package - which includes modifications to its diffuser, and a new nose and engine cover - showed its potential in practice at Silverstone yesterday, with Vettel leading a one-two finish in both sessions. Button, on the other hand, did not fare well again in the practice with the 14th fastest time in the second session. Vettel knows victory is vital tomorrow as he bids to claw back some of Button's 26-point lead at the top of the championship standings.
His teammate, Mark Webber, a further one-and-a-half points behind in fourth place, is convinced Red Bull can brighten the mood amid the unrest in Formula One. He finished second at the Turkish Grand Prix for his third podium in three races, although the impressive Button was a clear winner. "I think our chances here are very good," said Webber. "We are coming off the back of a strong result in Turkey and the most disappointing thing there was the gap to Jenson.
"Brawn were very strong in Turkey and we hope that is not going to be the case here again. That's what we are going to try to do." Vettel will be hoping team strategies will not determine his final placing. In Istanbul, he was told not to push Webber for second and had to settle for third. Webber added: "Sebastian has been a little unlucky in a few races where it hasn't quite fallen his way. I've had clean races and clean strategies and it has gone my way.
"But you can't plan for just normal grands prix on strategy because sometimes something does happen. You have to plan to get both cars to the finish in the most efficient way and that's the way we always do it as a team." In breezy conditions, Lewis Hamilton, who won last year, showed his liking for the home circuit with the seventh fastest time in the second session. The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen surprisingly finished among the slowest, but Massa is still hoping they will deliver when it matters, breaking their winning drought this season. "I think we have potential," he said. "We have made a big step forward and I believe that we can improve even more."
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