Abu Dhabi GP: Williams Martini inside top ten in FP3


By Andrew Hooper
November 28 2015

The final practice sesion for the 2015t Abu Dhabi GP would see both Williams Martini drivers inside the top ten with Felipe Massa 8th and Valtteri Bottas 9th. For the pair this represented a small improvement over Friday's best but again the team is still looking for that extra bit of p[ace to bring themselves closer to the front. Now it was down to qualifying and whether both drivers can make it through into Q3.

 
  Williams Martini Abu Dhabi GP Saturday Practice
 
Bottas
 

Team Summary:
After a Friday that saw both Williams Martini drivers looking for extra pace Saturday practice for the 2015 Abu Dhabi GP was the time to see if they had turned things around. Nasr would set the first quickest time with a 1m:46.061 with Ericsson going second. A 1m:45.836 from Nasr followed by a 1m:44.306 from Perez. Perez was now quickest from Felipe and Hulkenberg. Sainz would move into third followed by Hulkenberg and Valtteri. Verstappen would push Valtteri down to sixth with Sainz now fastest with a 1m:44.300 only to see Vettel and then Raikkonen go quicker. The quickest time from Raikkonen was a 1m:43.214. Vettel would improve but remained second, 1m:43.821.

But Rosberg would move into second with a 1m:43.415 while after these first runs Felipe and Valtteri were now sixth and ninth. Hamilton would go quickest with a 1m:43.078 followed by Raikkonen and Rosberg. As they continued their longer runs on the soft tyre the Williams drivers were currently in eighth and eleventh. with twenty minutes remaining the order was Hamilton from Raikkonen, Rosberg, Vettel, Ricciardo, Sainz, Perez, Felipe, Verstappen, and Hulkenberg tenth. Fifteen minutes remaining and the track was empty but drivers started to come out for their qualifying simulations with both Mercedes cars out on the track.

On his lap Rosberg would go quickest in sector one and he would finish with a 1m:42.196. Hamilton would respond going fastest in sector one. But he would go wide at Turn six ruining his lap. Rosberg would also get in another quick lap setting a 1m:41.856 with Hamilton setting a 1m:42.137 to remain second. After their first runs Felipe and Valtteri were third and fifth. But Ricciardo would go third with the track now very busy. Vettel was up to third, 1m:42.185 now followed by Perez, Ricciardo, and Felipe sixth. As the session came to an end Felipe was eighth and Valtteri ninth. With the end of the session Rosberg would remain fastest from Hamilton and Vettel. Both Williams drivers were 1.3 seconds off the quickest time which was a slight improvement over Friday.

Felipe Massa:
Felipe would be first out for the Williams team running on the soft tyre. Felipe would complete his lap with a 1m:44.375 to be second. With other drivers going quicker Felipe would drop to fifth then seventh. Felipe was also on a longer run on the soft tyre. With his team-mate back in the pits Felipe had completed twelve laps. Having completed sixteen laps Felipe would pit still in eighth. Felipe would follow Valtteri out and would move up to third with a 1m:43.173 to be behind Hamilton. Felipe would drop to eighth with the end of the session.

Valtteri Bottas:
Valtteri would follow Felipe out also on the soft tyre. Valtteri's first time was a 1m:44.980 to be fifth. He would drop to sixth then seventh. Valtteri would improve with a 1m:44.615 but remained seventh. Valtteri would drop to tenth as he completed a long run on the soft tyre. Valtteri would pit having completed eleven laps. Replays had shown that his car was quite unstable with Valtteri having to make big corrections of the steering wheel. Valtteri would be first out for Williams running on the super soft tyre. Valtteri would set a personal best in sector one. Valtteri would set a 1m:43.239 to be fourth. With Felipe moving into third Valtteri was now fifth. He would drop to ninth one place behind his team-mate.

 
Massa
 

Pos  Driver         	Team		        Time     Laps
1  Nico Rosberg		Mercedes		1m41.856s
2  Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		1m42.137s 
3  Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari			1m42.185s
4  Sergio Perez		Force India-Mercedes	1m42.448s
5  Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari			1m42.627s
6  Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1m42.726s
7  Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1m42.859s
8  Felipe Massa		Williams-Mercedes	1m43.173s
9  Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1m43.239s
10 Carlos Sainz		Toro Rosso-Renault	1m43.429s
11 Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda		1m43.508s
12 Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Mercedes		1m43.680s
13 Felipe Nasr		Sauber-Ferrari		1m43.718s
14 Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	1m43.826s
15 Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Mercedes		1m43.928s
16 Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda		1m44.014s
17 Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari		1m44.325s
18 Will Stevens		Marussia-Ferrari	1m47.283s
19 Roberto Merhi	Marussia-Ferrari	1m47.520s
-  Daniil Kvyat		Red Bull-Renault	-
 
Bottas
 

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Abu Dhabi GP: Williams Martini inside top ten in FP3
Discussion started by Williams F1 , 28/11/2015 11:41
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