Chinese GP: Both Williams drivers outside top ten in FP2


Pastor Maldonado

By Andrew Hooper
April 13 2012

The second Friday practice session for the 2012 Chinese GP would see both Williams F1 drivers finish down the order well outside the top ten. Pastor Maldonado would finish in sixteenth and Bruno Senna eighteenth. The team will have a lot of work to do to find that extra pace necessary for Saturday's qualifying.

 
 Chinese GP Friday 2nd Practice
 
Maldonado
 

The second Friday practice session would see dry conditions return while for the Williams F1 team Bruno Senna would take over from Valtteri Bottas and with the start of the session both Bruno and Pastor Maldonado would take to the track early. After the opening twenty minutes of the session Pastor and Bruno were down in twelfth and sixteenth while fastest was Hamilton with a 1m:36.814 from Rosberg, Vettel, Schumacher, Webber and Alonso in sixth. Both Williams drivers would go out on the softer tyre but for Pastor his first lap on these tyres would see him remain in twelfth, 1m:38.176, while for Bruno he would make a mistake at Turn one running wide ruining his lap. Bruno's time was a 1m:39.118 and he would pit.

Pastor had also come back into his pit while at the front Kobayashi would move up to third, 1m:36.956, running on the softer tyre. Vettel was out on the track with the soft tyre and would set a 1m:36.578 to go fastest. Pastor had now dropped to thirteenth while both Red Bull, cars would continue to improve with Vettel improving his quickest time with a 1m:36.160 while Webber was now third with a 1m:36.867. Perez was now seventh, 1m:37.461, while Bruno would return to the track. Pastor was now fourteenth and Bruno sixteenth. With fifty minutes remaining there was a small number of drivers out on the track. Webber was now second with a 1m:36.433 while for Torro Rosso Ricciardo was in ninth. Pastor would return to the track while both Red Bull cars would pit. Glock would spin his Marussia at the first corner with his car taking to the gravel and into the tyre barriers, while at the front Button would move into fourth with a 1m:36.926.

With just under forty minutes remaining Bruno had pitted, still in sixteenth, while Pastor was still out on the track in fourteenth. Using the soft tyre it would be Schumacher who would set a new fastest time with a 1m:35.973. Both Red Bull cars were now back out on the track joined by Bruno. Using the soft tyre Hamilton would respond to Schumacher setting a 1m:36.145 to move up to second. Raikkonen would move up to fourteenth pushing Pastor down one place while Bruno was now eighteenth. Both Williams drivers were well over two seconds off the pace. Di Resta was now tenth with the top nine been Schumacher from Hamilton, Vettel, Webber, Rosberg, Button, Kobayashi, Alonso and Perez. The second Ferrari of Massa was off the pace and down in seventeenth. Pastor would pit remaining in fifteenth. Bruno would remain out on the track running on the medium tyre. Both Vettel and Webber would pit remaining in third and fourth. Schumacher and Hamilton were back out on the track with twenty minutes remaining. Pastor would return to the track with Pastor dropping to sixteenth, 1m:38.176.

With just over ten minutes left in the session Hamilton would pit briefly leaving just a handful of drivers in the pits, including both Red Bull cars. Vettel would return to the track joined by Webber. We only had Grosjean and Petrov now in the pits. Several drivers were suffering major lockups going into Turn fourteen, including Perez and Hamilton. Both Williams drivers were on longer runs so it would be surprising to see any improvement from both Pastor and Bruno. Rosberg was now the only driver in the pits with four minutes remaining. Rosberg would pit briefly while Perez would come in. As the final minutes counted down Hamilton would pit after a big lockup. The session would come to an end with Pastor and Bruno still in sixteenth and eighteenth. The Williams F1 team would appear to have some work to do to find the extra pace.

 
Senna
 
Pos  Driver	    	   Team		  	  Time       Laps
 1.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m35.973   32
 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m36.145s  29
 3.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m36.160s  26
 4.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m36.433s  23
 5.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m36.617s  30
 6.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m36.711s  27
 7.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m36.956s  28
 8.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m36.966s  30
 9.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m37.191s  30
10.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m37.316s  32
11.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m37.417s  22
12.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m37.616s  33
13.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m37.836s  30
14.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m37.930s  31
15.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m37.972s  25
16.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m38.176s  34
17.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m38.293s  30
18.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault       1m38.783s  37
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       1m38.990s  36
20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       1m39.346s  19
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      1m39.651s  15
22.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth           1m40.343s  24
23.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      1m40.753s  30
 

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Chinese GP: Both Williams drivers outside top ten in FP2
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