German GP: Maldonado fastest in FP2


Pastor Maldonado

By Andrew Hooper
July 20 2012

The second Friday practice for the 2012 German GP would see Williams F1 driver Pastor Maldonado finish fastest in what was a session dominated by the changing track conditions. Team-mate Bruno Senna would finish down in sixteenth.

 
 German GP Friday 2nd Practice
 
Maldonado
 

Prior to the start of the second Friday practice for the 2012 German Grand Prix the rain would again start to fall. For those teams with upgrades the rain was going to make things very difficult. For Pirelli their hard tyre test was going to be made difficult if not impossible. The practice session would commence with no one taking to the track. For the Williams team Pastor had been fines for speeding in the first practice session. The weather reports had the rain lasting for at least another hour. Despite the rain it would be Bruno Senna who would come out first having missed practice earlier in the day. Running on full wets he would complete one lap prior to pitting at least allowing the Williams team to check the repairs on his car.

Drivers would start to get into their cars as they finally realised that they must get some wet weather running just in case Saturday is also wet. Vergne would be first out followed by Pic and Rosberg, all on full wets. The drivers were told that there were some rivers of water running across certain parts of the track, in particular Turns eight to ten. Vergne would set a 1m:43.330 as Glock also took to the track. A 1m:43.222 from Rosberg to be fastest with Pic setting a 1m:49.814. More drivers started to come out including Ricciardo, Vettel, and Hulkenberg. Vergne would go fastest with a 1m:41.135. Weather forecast had another heavy shower arriving in twenty minutes. a 1m:40.666 from Rosberg but Vergne would move ahead with a 1m:39.843.

We now had Schumacher, Kobayashi, Webber, Di Resta, Karthikeyan and Grosjean also leaving the pit lane. A 1m:39.980 from Rosberg but he remained in second. Bruno was also back out on the track while Vettel moved into third with a 1m:40.713. Hulkenberg was fourth from Ricciardo, Glock, and Pic. Rosberg was again fastest with a 1m:39.021 with an hour remaining in the session. Vergne would improve with a 1m:39.455 but remained second. Webber was up to third, 1m:39.721, but Di Resta would take this spot with a 1m:39.592. Vettel was now fifth from Schumacher, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Raikkonen, and Grosjean in tenth. Webber would improve to be second, 1m:39.305, with Grosjean also improving with a time of 1m:39.333. Vettel would go fastest with a 1m:38.243 but Schumacher would move ahead with a time of 1m:38.194. The order was changing rapidly with Perez now in fourth.

Vergne would improve to be third while for Williams Pastor was in twelfth, 1m:40.695, and Bruno sixteenth, 1m:41.803. Rosberg was fourth but Ricciardo would move ahead with a 1m:38.449. Fifth was now Rosberg from Perez, Di Resta, Raikkonen, Kobayashi, and Webber tenth. Schumacher would pit joining Rosberg. Bruno was on a better lap as Hamilton and Alonso also came out from their pits. Bruno would set a 1m:39.777 to be thirteenth pushing Pastor down to fourteenth. Vergne would go fastest with a 1m:38.051. Perez was up to third, 1m:38.228, while Pastor would move ahead of Bruno with a lap time of 1m:39.638, to be fourteenth. Bruno had dropped to sixteenth. The times would come down as Alonso went fastest with a 1m:37.395. Perez was now second from Ricciardo and Grosjean.

Rosberg was out on the intermediate tyre as Pastor pitted. Massa was up to fourth, 1m:37.889, while Rosberg would put his intermediate tyres to good effect to be fastest with a 1m:37.285. Grosjean was up to fourth with a 1m:37.653. Hamilton was down in fourteenth but he would improve to be fourth, 1m:37.646. Rosberg would continue to improve as both Ferrari's had pitted to take on intermediates. Pastor and Bruno were now seventeenth and nineteenth. Button was down in twentieth while at the front Rosberg would improve with a 1m:35.833 to stay fastest. More drivers were taking on the intermediate tyre as Alonso also improved to be fastest with a 1m:34.593. Massa was seventh but fastest in sector one. Vettel was up to third, 1m:36.682, with Perez now fourth. More quick times appeared with Massa going fastest, 1m:34.576, with Alonso second. Raikkonen was now third from Rosberg, Vergne, Webber, Vettel, Perez, Hamilton, and Grosjean in tenth.

Vergne and Ricciardo moved into third and fourth but Rosberg again moved to the top of the times with a 1m:33.824. Vettel was now second but Schumacher would move ahead with a 1m:33.916. Rosberg would again be second but Hamilton would take this spot with a 1m:33.676. Times were coming down with Grosjean going fastest, 1m:32.897, from Rosberg, Vettel, Massa, and Ricciardo. Such was the rapid change in times Schumacher would go fastest with a 1m:32.777. Grosjean was second but Vergne would take this spot with a 1m:32.896. But Raikkonen would take second with Webber now third. Alonso would again be fastest with a 1m:31.207. Bruno was back out on the track with the track drying out quite quickly. Pastor was nineteenth and Bruno twentieth. Grosjean would go fastest with a 1m:30.666 from Alonso
and Perez. Webber was now fourth from Rosberg and Ricciardo in sixth.

Both Massa and Vettel would improve with Massa and Vettel second and third. Bruno was now in seventeenth with a 1m:33.881. Pastor was now out on the track with Grosjean fastest with a 1m:30.181 but Vettel would move ahead with a 1m:30.097. But Massa would also improve to be fastest with a 1m:29.719. Raikkonen was now second with Vettel third and Button fourth. Fifth was Grosjean from Webber, Di Resta, and on his first lap Pastor would move into ninth, 1m:30.493. Bruno was now in seventh, 1m:30.291, while at the front Raikkonen was fastest with a 1m:29.327. Vettel was now fastest with a 1m:28.835 but quickly Button would move ahead with a 1m:28.516. Pastor was now in third, 1m:28.835, but Vettel would move ahead. Bruno would pit after a spin currently in tenth. Grosjean was now fastest with a 1m:28.420 as Ricciardo moved into second, 1m:28.513.

Vettel would go fastest with a 1m:27.902 but Pastor would move ahead with a 1m:27.476. Bruno had dropped to thirteenth while for Marussia Pic was eleventh. Rosberg was now second, 1m:27.564, from Vettel, Perez, Grosjean, and Ricciardo in sixth. Pastor would pit as the further rain fasted to fall again. Hulkenberg would improve to be sixth, 1m:28.495. Bruno was getting ready to go out on slicks but with the rain there was no point in him running with these tyres. The rain would start to fall even heavier the track would again be empty with twenty minutes left in the session. Schumacher would leave the pit lane followed by Hamilton. Schumacher was in twenty third and Hamilton nineteenth. Raikkonen would also come out followed by Bruno. Hamilton would run off the track but was able to continue. Bruno had remained on the intermediate tyre for this run.

We also had Petrov, Rosberg, Alonso, and Kobayashi out on the track. Rosberg would pit as Vettel came out of the pits. Hamilton had also pitted as Rosberg returned to the track. Perez was also out on the track with Vergne also coming out. Rosberg would again pit joined by Schumacher. Alonso was down in twentieth as Vergne pitted as Hulkenberg left his pit. Bruno would leave the track at Turn eight seeing him continue only to pit. Ten minutes of the session remaining while Ricciardo would also go off the track at Turn thirteen, the same corner as Valtteri. He would be stuck in the gravel seeing a tractor coming to remove him. Several drivers would come out on the intermediate including Webber, Button, Vergne, Massa and for Williams Pastor would also come out. Bruno was also out on the track with only a handful of drivers till in their pits with five minutes remaining.

In the closing moments of the session Schumacher would go off to cause a red flag. His Mercedes was badly damaged as Schumacher got out of his car. Schumacher had lost his car with the rear of his car spinning around across the grass and into the barrier. He would have both front and rear damage to his Mercedes. Everyone would pit and the session came to an end. Again it was a difficult session with variable conditions affecting everyone's running. With the end of the session the order was Pastor fastest from Rosberg, Vettel, Perez, Grosjean, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Button, Webber, and Raikkonen in tenth. Hamilton and Alonso were down in nineteenth and twentieth.

For Williams it was encouraging to see Pastor fastest but to a degree it was a case of been out on the right tyre at the right time and beating the rain that came late in the session. Bruno was down in sixteenth and not having the best of sessions running off the track at one time.

 
Senna
 
Pos  Driver         	 Team		       Time      Laps
 1.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault      1m27.476  14
 2.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m27.564s 24
 3.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m27.902s 24
 4.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m28.402s 26
 5.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault         1m28.420s 20
 6.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  1m28.495s 22
 7.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m28.513s 23
 8.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m28.516s 16
 9.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m28.877s 21
10.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault         1m29.327s 22
11.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m29.364s 26
12.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m29.719s 15
13.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m29.785s 24
14.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth     1m30.090s 19
15.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth     1m30.220s 16
16.  Bruno Senna         Williams-Renault      1m30.291s 22
17.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault      1m30.331s 26
18.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m30.437s 14
19.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m30.617s 16
20.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m31.207s 20
21.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault      1m32.241s 22
22.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth          1m32.349s 17
23.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m32.777s 18
24.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth          1m42.566s 8
 

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German GP: Maldonado fastest in FP2
Discussion started by Williams F1 , 20/07/2012 14:52
Williams F1
20/07/2012 14:52
What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
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Ozzy Osbone
20/07/2012 17:15
Hopeful but doesn't tell us much. Pity Bottas bent one of the cars this morning.

Mansell`s flying wheelnut
20/07/2012 19:21
Even though it's rain affected, finishing top in FP2 should do Pastor's confidence some good, he's taken a few knocks lately (and given some) and he needs a nice incident free weekend finishing in the decent points.

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