Belgian GP: Uneventful FP1 for Williams Martini


By Andrew Hooper
August 26 2016

In what was an uneventful session for the Williams Martini team the opening Friday practice session for the 2016 Belgian GP would see their drivers finish in 9th and 12th. Valtteri Bottas would lead his team-mate Felipe Massa in the session with both drivers working through runs on the medium and soft tyres as the team worked through their programme for the session.

 
  Williams Martini Belgian GP Friday 1st Practice
 
Bottas
 

Team Summary:
Both Williams Martini drivers would come out early completing their installation laps running on soft tyres. Drivers would start to return to the track with just over an hour fifteen minutes remaining. Perez would set a 1m:51.433 to be quickest but Hulkenberg was able to move ahead with a 1m:51.272, both on the medium tyres. Rosberg would go quickest with a 1m:49.481 now followed by Raikkonen. Rosberg was running with the halo on his car pitting after one timed lap. Perez was now third followed by Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Grosjean and Verstappen. Vettel was third behind Raikkonen but both Ferrari's were on the soft tyre. Rosberg was back out running on the supersoft tyre. Vettel would move up to second with a 1m:50.445 while Rosberg would set a 1m:48.348 to remain quickest.

Both Williams drivers were on a longer run on the medium tyre with an hour remaining. Hamilton was also out on the supersoft tyre going second with a 1m:49.078. Thirty five minutes into the session and both Williams drivers were out on the runs on the medium tyre with the pair eighth and fifteenth. Several drivers were out on a prototype Pirelli tyre while at the front it was still Rosberg quickest from Hamilton, Raikkonen, Perez, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, and Valtteri. But Vettel would improve to be fourth, 1m:49.768. With twenty minutes remaining Valtteri and Felipe were eighth and eleventh with the pair out on the soft tyres as the session drew to a close. With the end of the session Valtteri and Felipe would finish in ninth and twelfth. The order was Rosberg from Hamilton, Raikkonen, Perez, Vettel, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Hulkenberg, Valtteri, and Gutierrez in tenth. An uneventful session for the Williams drivers with both drivers having worked through longer runs on both the medium and soft tyre.

Valtteri Bottas:
With the start of the opening Friday practice session Valtteri would come out for two installation laps running on soft tyres. Valtteri would return to the track this time on the medium tyres. Valtteri's first time was a 1m:51.363 to be sixth. He would drop to eighth behind Ricciardo. He would find a few hundredths to set a 1m:51.360. Valtteri would pit having completed ten laps on the medium tyre. After a short stop Valtteri would return running on a new set of medium tyres. On this run Valtteri would set a 1m:50.394 to be fifth dropping to seventh. This would become eighth as he pitted having completed six laps. Valtteri's next run would be on the soft tyre and he would complete fifteen laps prior to pitting ending his session.

Felipe Massa:
Felipe would follow Valtteri out also running on the soft tyre completing two installation laps. Felipe would follow Valtteri out also on the medium tyre. Felipe would set a 1m:52.586 to currently be tenth. He would drop to eleventh but those drivers in front of him were all of the soft tyre. Felipe would fall to fifteenth and would pit having completed eleven laps on the medium tyre. Felipe would also return running on a new set of medium tyres. Felipe would improve with a 1m:51.122 to be eleventh. He would pit but would return still on the medium tyre. After one lap he would pit having completed five laps on the medium tyre. Like his team-mate Felipe would return running on the soft prototype tyres. He would drop to twelfth to be behind the Hass cars.

 
Bottas
 

Pos  Driver         	Team		        Time     Laps
1   Nico Rosberg 	Mercedes 		1m48.348s 27 
2   Lewis Hamilton 	Mercedes 		1m49.078s 25 
3   Kimi Raikkonen 	Ferrari 		1m49.147s 24 
4   Sergio Perez 	Force India-Mercedes 	1m49.274s 23 
5   Sebastian Vettel 	Ferrari 		1m49.768s 19 
6   Daniel Ricciardo 	Red Bull-Renault 	1m49.782s 24 
7   Max Verstappen 	Red Bull-Renault 	1m49.865s 24 
8   Nico Hulkenberg 	Force India-Mercedes 	1m50.088s 21 
9   Valtteri Bottas 	Williams-Mercedes 	1m50.394s 31 
10  Esteban Gutierrez 	Haas-Ferrari 		1m50.583s 21 
11  Romain Grosjean 	Haas-Ferrari 		1m50.899s 18 
12  Felipe Massa 	Williams-Mercedes 	1m51.122s 28 
13  Marcus Ericsson 	Sauber-Ferrari 		1m51.125s 16 
14  Carlos Sainz 	Toro Rosso-Ferrari 	1m51.424s 17 
15  Felipe Nasr 	Sauber-Ferrari 		1m51.768s 19 
16  Esteban Ocon 	Manor-Mercedes 		1m51.787s 26 
17  Daniil Kvyat 	Toro Rosso-Ferrari 	1m52.308s 19 
18  Jenson Button 	McLaren-Honda 		1m52.407s 18 
19  Pascal Wehrlein 	Manor-Mercedes 		1m52.837s 23 
20  Kevin Magnussen 	Renault 		1m53.053s 20 
21  Jolyon Palmer 	Renault 		1m53.089s 20 
-   Fernando Alonso 	McLaren-Honda 		- 	  3
 
Williams Pitstop
 

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