Russian GP: Massa in top ten for Williams Martini in FP2
By Andrew Hooper
April 28 2017
The second Friday practice session for the 2017 Russian GP would see Williams Martini driver Felipe Massa finish in an encouraging 7th position. For his team-mate Lance Stroll his session would see him run only on the suoer soft tyre as he focused on learning the Sochi track. He did not run on the ultra soft tyre explaining his low 19th position in the times. Saturday should see him move up the times.
Williams
Martini Russian GP Friday 2nd Practice
Team Summary:
The opening Friday practice session would see the Williams Martini cars
finish in an encouraging eighth and ninth with Lance Stroll just behind
team-mate Felipe Massa. With the start of the second session Vettel would
set the first competitive quickest time with a 1m:36.524, with Raikkonen
second. Raikkonen would improve to be fastest with a 1m:35.980 with Bottas
now second. Hamilton would go quickest with a 1m:35.752 from Raikkonen and
Bottas. Ricciardo was now third with a 1m:36.224. After their first runs the
Williams pair were now sixth and thirteenth with just over an hour
remaining.
The first driver on the ultra soft tyre was Raikkonen and he would set a
1m:34.721 to be quickest. Vettel was now out on the same tyre. Raikkonen
would improve with a 1m:34.383. Vettel would go second with a 1m:34.480, but
his next lap would see him improve with a 1m:34.120 to go quickest. Bottas
was third with a 1m:35.313 to be 1.1 seconds behind Vettel. A 1m:34.998
would see Bottas improve but would remain third. Hamilton would go third
with a 1m:34.829 but Bottas would move back into third again with a
1m:34.790. With just under forty five minutes remaining the top ten was
Vettel, Raikkonen, Bottas, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Felipe,
Hulkenberg, Perez and Ocon.
With twenty five minutes remaining most drivers were on longer runs with the
majority on the ultra soft tyre. of the top ten only Raikkonen was on the
super soft tyre. As the session drew to a close the Williams drivers were
seventh and nineteenth with the drivers on different programmes with Lances
focus been learning the track. More drivers had switched to the super soft
tyre as the session came to an end. Both Williams drivers were on the super
soft tyre as the session ended. Felipe was again in the stop ten but Lance
had yet to get the opportunity to run on the ultra soft tyre so he should be
closer to the front on Saturday.
Felipe Massa:
Felipe would be first out for Williams running on a new super soft tyre. His
first timed lap would see a 1m:37.697 to be fourth, dropping to fifth. As
others went quicker Felipe would drop to seventh behind Hulkenberg. But
Felipe would find time with a 1m:37.090 to move up to fifth. He would drop
to sixth behind Ricciardo. But Felipe would set a 1m:36.837 to move back up
fifth. Felipe would pit after seven laps. He would drop to sixth behind
Vettel. Felipe would return for his first run on the ultra soft tyre. Felipe
would set a 1m:36.528 remaining sixth. This was now much of an improvement
on the soft tyre. He was able to improve with a 1m:36.261 but remained
sixth. After five laps Felipe would pit. He would drop to seventh behind
Verstappen. Felipe would continue his run on the ultra soft tyre having
completed nine laps on his current run. With ten minutes remaining Felipe
had completed twenty four laps on the ultra soft tyre. Felipe would pit
taking on the super soft tyre and would complete the session on this tyre.
Lance Stroll:
Lance would follow his team-mate out also on the super soft tyre. Lance
would set a slow 1m:49.986 on his first lap. A 1m:40.065 from Lance would
see him down in fourteenth. Lance was now finding any real improvements in
his times setting a 1m:38.498 to be now fifteenth. A 1m:38.098 would see
Lance thirteenth behind Kvyat. Lance would pit after nine laps. While in his
pit Lance would drop to sixteenth and would come back out on a new set of
super soft tyres. Lance would continue to lap currently in eighteenth. Lance
would pit briefly but would come back ut continuing on his long run on the
super soft tyre. After a run of fourteen laps Lance would pit. He had
dropped to nineteenth while he was in his pit. With twenty minutes remaining
Lance was back out on a set of used super soft tyres. The team was using
this opportunity to learn the track and complete some setup work on the
super soft tyres. He would pit after a single lap but would return. He would
complete the session having completed eigteen laps on the super soft tyre.
It was expected that he would get the opportunity to run on the ultra soft
tyre in the Saturday practice.
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