Mark Webber: “There’s not much in it…”

Mark Webber is keeping his feet on the ground despite topping both sessions in Malaysia today.

Webber was an amazing 1.6s clear of Lewis Hamilton in the first session, but in the afternoon he was only 0.005s clear of Jenson Button. Nevertheless it was a solid start for the Aussie.

“Obviously there’s not much in it,” said Webber. “We’re all pretty close, give or take a couple of tenths – who got traffic, who didn’t, how their KERS worked. So far, so good, I’m towards the front somewhere.

“It’s still early days in the weekend. We got some good dry running in, and the car performed well. Obviously it was reliable, which was a nice bonus, so we got to check all the tyres, and also Pirelli’s new tyre that they brought here.

“The team ran very well today, both sides of the garage. A big night for the guys again tonight, and we’ll go from there.”

Asked if his KERS worked OK, Webber said: “Most of the time…”

He expects the DRS to be more valuable here than in Australia.

“It should be better than Melbourne. Obviously we’ve got a very slow corner opening the lap, or opening the activation of it, and then a pretty big braking area into Turn One, and plenty of options on the straight. It will definitely be better than Melbourne. Whether it’s enough remains to be seen.”