German GP: Williams continues to struggle in FP3


By Andrew Hooper
July 6 2013

The final practice session for the 2013 German GP would again be a difficult time for the Williams F1 team with drivers Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas only managing 17th and 18th. It would be unlikely that things would change come qualifying.

 
 German GP Saturday Practice
 
Maldonado
 

In the morning prior to the final practice for the 2013 German Grand Prix the Williams F1 team had to cope with a KERS failure in Pastor Maldonado's car. With the car in the garage there was was smoke but the issue was quickly contained. The Williams mechanics worked would hard to fix his car and allow Pastor to take part. It was again a dry day as the session commenced with Di Resta taking to the track first. Both Williams drivers would leave the pit lane with Valtteri Bottas leading Pastor out. Both drivers would pit after their installation lap but it would be Perez who would be the first driver to start a timed lap. He would set a 1m:34.382 while team-mate Button would also complete a lap setting a 1m:41.735. Rosberg would set a 1m:39.618 on his first lap. Pic would go second as Perez improved with a 1m:33.684.

Van der Gar would go third but as Button went fastest with a 1m:32.704 he would become fourth. Rosberg would go fastest with a 1m:31.911 while Hamilton was now sixth, 1m:38.369. Everyone was on the medium tyre for these early runs as we had both Marussia cars come out. Both Sauber's would also leave the pits along with Raikkonen. Rosberg would improve with a 1m:31.618 with Button still second followed by Perez and Pic. We now had Sutil, Grosjean also out on the track as Hamilton ran wide at Turn two but was able to continue. Vergne was next out as Hulkenberg moved into fifth with a 1m:34.936. Hamilton would move up to second with a 1m:32.118. For Williams Valtteri would be first out as Raikkonen moved up to third, 1m:32.229. Pastor would also come out along with Vettel. Grosjean would go fourth with a 1m:32.489 while Sutil was in thirteenth.

Sutil would improve to be eighth with a 1m:32.946 as Valtteri was on his first timed lap seeing him set a 1m:33.234 to be ninth. Ricciardo was now eleventh with nearly twenty minutes of the session completed. Vergne would move up to ninth seeing Valtteri now tenth. Pastor's first timed lap was a 1m:33.598 to be fourteenth. Vettel would go fast with a 1m:31.365, while Ricciardo moved up to eighth with a 1m:32.638. Valtteri had dropped to fifteenth and Pastor sixteenth. Pastor was on an improved lap setting a1m:33.029 to be thirteenth. Webber had moved up to third with a 1m:31.792 while Valtteri improved with a 1m:33.016 to be fourteenth. Pastor had dropped to sixteenth. Webber's next lap would see him set a 1m:31.298 to be second. Both Williams drivers weer still out on the track along with the Red Bull's.

With just over thirty minutes remaining the track was quite empty. Valtteri was now thirteenth with a 1m:32.969 and Pastor sixteenth with a 1m:33.088 and back in his pit. We would finally see the Ferrari's take to the track with Alonso moving into eighth, 1m:32.585. Valtteri would pit as Massa moved up to twelfth, 1m:32.792. Pastor would come on the radio saying that he could not drive his car. Alonso would move into sixth with a time of 1m:32.228 with Massa now eighth. With twenty seven minutes remaining the track was again fairly busy with drivers out on the second runs. Valtteri was back out and would report that the wind was making it difficult to brake at Turns One and Two. Pastor was also back out with twenty five minutes left in the session.

Vettel was now back out with now just five cars still in their pits. So far no one had come out on the soft tyre as Webber took to the track. Valtteri was currently fifteenth and Pastor eighteenth. At the front it was still Vettel from Webber, Rosberg, Grosjean, Hamilton, Alonso, Raikkonen, Massa, Hulkenberg, and Ricciardo tenth. We now has both Mercedes and Ferrari's back in their pits as we had Di Resta running off the road at Turn two but he was able to continue. Valtteri would pit with eighteen minutes remaining to be followed shortly after by Pastor. There were only seven drivers on track at the moment, with the rest already in the pits looking towards their soft tyre runs in their final runs. With thirteen minutes remaining we only had Gutierrez out on the track. He would pit as Alonso returned to the track.

Massa would also come out both on the soft tyre. More drivers were coming out as Alonso started his flying lap. He would finish with a 1m:30.621 to be quickest, an improvement of 1.6 seconds for the Ferrari driver. Rosberg and Massa were on quick lap with Massa going second with a 1m:30.639. Both Williams drivers were back out with the track now very busy. Rosberg would complete his lap setting a 1m:30.193 to be 0.428 ahead of Alonso. Hamilton would move into fourth with a 1m:30.744. Vettel had yet to come out as Di Resta set his quick time going eighth with a 1m:31.849. Pastor was able to find a big amount of time to move into tenth with a 1m:32.053. Hulkenberg was now fifth as Webber went fastest in Sector one. Raikkonen would set a 1m:30.671 to be fourth. Webber would complete his lap setting a 1m:30.211 to be second.

Vettel was now out on the track as we now had Valtteri and Pastor down in sixteenth and seventeenth after their final runs. Grosjean was on a quick lap but he would only finish in seventh, 1m:30.781. So as the session drew to a close Rosberg was fastest from Webber, Alonso, Massa, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Grosjean, Hulkenberg, Sutil, and Vettel currently tenth. Vettel was on his final lap going fastest in sector two. He would complete his lap setting a 1m:29.517 to be 0.676 ahead of Rosberg. Pastor was able to get ahead of Valtteri with a 1m:31.969 but both Williams drivers were now in seventeenth and eighteenth with the end of the session. Qualifying for Williams is going to be a difficult time for the Williams team.

 
Bottas
 
Pos  Driver         	  Team		        Time      Laps
 1. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m29.517s 19
 2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m30.193s 19
 3. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m30.211s 18
 4. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m30.621s 16
 5. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m30.639s 17
 6. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m30.671s 19
 7. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m30.744s 20
 8. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m30.781s 18
 9. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari        1m30.966s 20
10. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m31.009s 18
11. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m31.326s 22
12. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1m31.405s 20
13. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m31.733s 21
14. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m31.855s 18
15. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      1m31.855s 23
16. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m31.898s 19
17. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m31.969s 20
18. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1m32.036s 23
19. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault      1m33.230s 19
20. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth     1m33.470s 22
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault      1m33.964s 21
22. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth     1m34.683s 20
 
Maldonado
 

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German GP: Williams continues to struggle in FP3
Discussion started by Williams F1 , 06/07/2013 11:20
Williams F1
06/07/2013 11:20
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Tazio Nuvolari
06/07/2013 12:10
And Williams will probably continue to struggle in qualifying as well... Although I must say the gaps between Williams, Sauber and Torro Rosso (and even McLaren) are not very big. So who knows, maybe we will see a spectacular 14th place winking smiley Anyway, it's not worth watching the qualifying.

"Gilles was the last great driver. The rest of us are just a bunch of good professionals." -- Alain Prost

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