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Monaco GP: Williams Martini continues to struggle in FP3


By Andrew Hooper
May 27 2017

The final practice session for the 2017 Monaco GP was not one where the Williams Martini team would come away with the result they were no doubt hoping for. Both drivers would finish well down the times with Felipe Massa only managing 14th while team-mate Lance Stroll was only 0.6 behind hs team-mate but this would see him 17th. Their lack of pace on the Monaco circuit is going to make qualifying a difficult session for both drivers.

 
 Williams Martini Monaco GP Saturday Practice
 
Massa
 

Team Summary:
With the start of the final hour long practice session for the 2017 Monaco GP there would be a mix of tyres been used. Palmer would set a 1m:16.075 followed by Ericsson. Bottas would set a 1m:15.249 running on the ultra soft tyre. Palmer would improve with a 1m:15.795 with Hulkenberg now second ahead of his team-mate. Ocon would move up to second as Raikkonen went quickest from Bottas, Perez, and Ocon. Hamilton was now fifth with a 1m:14.736. Raikkonen had set a 1m:13.568 and Bottas a 1m:13.621. Raikkonen would lose the rear going into the final corner and would almost come to a stop to avoid hitting the barrier. Hamilton was now third with a 1m:14.065. Vettel would move up to fourth followed by Perez and Ocon. With forty minutes remaining Hamilton would go quickest but Raikkonen would go quicker with a 1m:13.013. then it would be Vettel setting the quickest time with a 1m:12.890.

With just under forty minutes remaining the order was Vettel, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen, Kvyat, Ocon, Perez, Vandoorne and Sainz tenth. Verstappen would go third and Kvyat fifth both ahead of Bottas. Vandoorne had moved up to eighth. With sixteen minutes of the session completed the Williams drivers were sixteenth and seventeenth. A 1m:13.805 from Vandoorne would see him seventh, followed by Ricciardo and Sainz. Button was now tenth as Ricciardo went fifth to be behind his team-mate. With under thirty minutes remaining the Williams drivers were well down the times. Verstappen would set a 1m:12.940 to move up to second. Vettel was on a quicker using a new set of ultra soft tyres. Raikkonen would go quickest with a 1m:12.875 but Vettel would set a 1m:12.558 making it a Ferrari 1-2.

Bottas would improve with a 1m:12.987 to be fourth behind Verstappen. Hamilton would be fifth followed by Ricciardo and Kvyat. Vettel was on an even quicker lap setting 1m:12.395. As the final ten minutes of the session commenced the major event in the closing period of the session would be when Ocon would put his car into the barrier at the exit to the Swimming pool, see the Virtual Safety Car applied. The session would go green again with just three minutes remaining. With the end of the session it would be Vettel ahead of Raikkonen with Bottas third. For the Williams team a fourteenth and seventeenth was far from the result they would have hoped for prior to qualifying.

Felipe Massa:
Felipe would be first out in the session for Williams running on used soft tyres. Felipe would pit after a single installation lap. With fifteen minutes completed Felipe was still in his pit. Finally he would come out on new ultra soft tyres. Felipe's first lap would see him behind Lance but he would set a 1m:15.018 to now be fourteenth. He would drop to sixteenth but a 1m:14.764 would see him move to fourteenth. He would improve with a 1m:14.590 currently fifteenth. Felipe would pit after thirteenth laps completed. Felipe would follow his team-mate out also on a new set of tyres with fifteen minutes remaining. On his final run Felipe would only manage a 1m:14.072 seeing him fourteenth.

Lance Stroll:
Like his team-mate Lance would come out on used soft tyres for his installation lap. Lance would change to a new set of ultra soft tyres and would return to the track. Lance would set a 1m:23.525 on his first lap. His next lap would see a 1m:16.478 followed by a 1m:15.941. Lance was currently ninth behind Palmer. lance was putting in personal bests in sectors but was not putting it all together. lance had dropped to fourteenth. A 1m:15.940 from Lance with nine laps completed. Lance would drop to fifteenth to be ahead of Felipe. But his team-mate would move ahead while Lance would set a 1m:15.040 to be seventeenth. Lance would pit after a total of nineteen laps. With sixteen minutes remaining Lance would come back out on a new set of ultra soft tyres. Lance would set a 1m:14..675 on what was his qualifying simulation. This would see him down in seventeenth.

 
Stroll
 
Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m12.395s - 23
2 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m12.740s 0.345s 26
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m12.830s 0.435s 29
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1m12.940s 0.545s 27
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m13.230s 0.835s 27
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1m13.392s 0.997s 24
7 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso/Renault 1m13.400s 1.005s 27
8 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Renault 1m13.563s 1.168s 23
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m13.596s 1.201s 21
10 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Honda 1m13.805s 1.410s 21
11 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m13.936s 1.541s 23
12 Jenson Button McLaren/Honda 1m13.976s 1.581s 26
13 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1m14.072s 1.677s 21
14 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m14.072s 1.677s 28
15 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m14.283s 1.888s 24
16 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m14.547s 2.152s 23
17 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1m14.675s 2.280s 35
18 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m15.164s 2.769s 25
19 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber/Ferrari 1m15.291s 2.896s 29
20 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m15.863s 3.468s 26
 

Massa

 

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Monaco GP: Williams Martini continues to struggle in FP3
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