European GP: Maldonado tenth in FP3


By Andrew Hooper
June 23 2012

The final practice session for the 2012 European GP would see Williams F1 drivers Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna finish in tenth and fourteenth. Not exactly the pace that the team would have hoped for in the lead-up to qualifying.

 
 European GP Saturday Practice
 
Maldonado
 

On a day that would see warmer conditions the Williams F1 team would commence their final practice session for the 2012 European Grand Prix. There would be a rush of drivers all coming out for their installation laps. For Williams Pastor Maldonado would take to the track first followed by team-mate Bruno Senna. Both Williams drivers would complete radio checks on their installation laps. Hamilton would be the last driver out on the track. Pastor would complete a second lap prior to pitting. The track was now empty with ten minutes of the session completed. Pastor had remained in his car as Grosjean took to the track running on the medium tyre. The drivers have the medium and soft tyres to choose from.

Raikkonen would join his team-mate followed by Hamilton. Next out would be Ricciardo as Grosjean set a 1m:40.136. More drivers would take to the track including both Force India cars, Rosberg, Glock, Vergne, and Perez. Raikkonen would set a 1m:40.621. For Williams Pastor would be first back out while both HRT cars were also out on the track. Hamilton would set a 1m:40.324 also on the medium tyre. Bruno would take to the track as Raikkonen set a 1m:40.216 to be second. Hulkenberg was fourth, 1m:45.302, while Ricciardo set a 1m:41.916 to be fourth. Perez would move ahead to be fourth while Vergne would move ahead of Ricciardo. Hulkenberg was now fourth with a 1m:40.689 but he would drop one place as Pastor moved up to third, 1m:40.280.

Hamilton was now fourth followed by Button, Hulkenberg, Perez, and Ricciardo now eighth. Di Resta would jump up to fifth, 1m:40.386, as Raikkonen went fastest with a 1m:39.796. Hamilton would have a big lock up at Turn seventeen. Brno's first lap would see him in tenth, 1m:41.418. Hamilton would now be fastest with a 1m:39.793. Button was now third from Grosjean, Hulkenberg, Pastor, Schumacher, and Di Resta in eighth. Neither of the Ferrari's had yet to come out as both Lotus cars pitted. Bruno had dropped to twelfth while Rosberg was in tenth. Both McLaren's would pit as we now had both Red Bull and Ferrari cars out on the track. Webber's first lap would see him twelfth, 1m:41.282, while team-mate Vettel would set a 1m:39.911 to be third.

But Pastor would also find further pace to go fastest with a 1m:39.762. Bruno was sill twelfth with a 1m:40.426. Pastors time was set on the medium tyre while for Mercedes Rosberg would move up to fifth, 1m:39.946. Both Williams drivers would pit as the track became quite empty. Vettel was on a quick lap while Alonso had yet to set a time. Massa was now eighth with a time of 1m:40.142. Vettel would abort his lap while Raikkonen would return to the circuit. Vettel's next lap would see him set a 1m:39.448 to go fastest 0.314 ahead of Pastor. Massa was now third with a 1m:39.772. More drivers were coming back out for their second runs as Grosjean went fastest in sector one and two. Vettel would find a few tenths setting a 1m:39.434 while Grosjean running on the soft tyre would set a 1m:38.655, to be 0.779 ahead of Vettel.

Pastor was back out while Alonso was now in eighth with a 1m:40.007. Vettel and Massa would pit with Vettel's stop brief. Webber was down in seventeenth with what looked like a brake issue as his mechanics worked on his car in the garage. Pastor was now third while Bruno had dropped to fifteenth. Bruno would return to the track coming out on the soft tyre. Pastor had come back out on the medium tyre for his second run. Perez would move ahead of Pastor to be third, 1m:39.687, also on the medium tyre. With eighteen minutes remaining it was Grosjean from Vettel, Perez,
Pastor, Massa, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Button, Rosberg, and Alonso in tenth. On his first lap Bruno would back off but his next lap he would improve to set a 1m:39.543 to be third. Kobayashi was now fourth, 1m:39.562, running on the medium tyre while team-mate Perez was fifth. Pastor would pit currently in sixth.

Bruno had also pitted while for Red Bull Webber had gotten out of his car as the car was still worked on. The track was now quite empty as the drivers go ready for their final runs. We only had Hamilton, Raikkonen, and Rosberg out on the track. Hamilton would pit followed by Rosberg leaving just Raikkonen out on the track, running on the soft tyres. Next back out would be Perez and Alonso. Raikkonen would finish his lap with a 1m:38.759 to be second. More drivers started to come out including both Torro Rosso's, both Force India cars, Button, and Rosberg. With eight minutes remaining all the drivers were out on the soft tyre while for Williams both Pastor and Bruno were still in their pits. As the minutes counted down we only had Vettel, Webber, and Senna still in their pits. Bruno would come back out with six minutes left in the session.

Di Resta was up to third with a 1m:38.967. Button was now fastest with a 1m:38.562 as Raikkonen pitted. Hulkenberg was now fourth, 1m:38.819, while Bruno had dropped to twelfth and Pastor thirteenth. Schumacher was now in seventh with Kobayashi eighth. Perez was now sixth with a 1m:39.084 as Bruno pitted. Massa was now ninth while Vettel had come out. Button would pit with one and a half minutes remaining. Pastor would set a 1m:39.357 to be tenth. Hamilton would pit currently in seventh. Both Raikkonen and Hulkenberg would pit as the session drew to a close. Webber would not return to the track as the session ended.

Button was fastest from Grosjean, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Di Resta, Perez, Schumacher, Hamilton, Massa, and Pastor in tenth. Bruno was now fourteenth. Alonso was in twelfth and Vettel thirteenth after making a mistake at Turn two on his soft tyre run. For the Williams F1 team Pastor and Bruno were in tenth and fourteenth. Not exactly the pace that the team would have hoped for in the lead-up to qualifying.

 
Senna
 
Pos  Driver         	 Team		       Time      Laps
 1.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m38.562  17
 2.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault         1m38.655s 18
 3.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault         1m38.759s 18
 4.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  1m38.819s 17
 5.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m38.892s 17
 6.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m39.084s 20
 7.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m39.141s 15
 8.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m39.178s 17
 9.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m39.318s 15
10.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault      1m39.357s 18
11.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m39.358s 19
12.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m39.395s 15
13.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m39.434s 13
14.  Bruno Senna         Williams-Renault      1m39.543s 13
15.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m39.946s 20
16.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m40.037s 17
17.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m40.134s 20
18.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault      1m40.681s 15
19.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m41.282s 4
20.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault      1m41.931s 15
21.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth          1m42.758s 14
22.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth     1m42.815s 16
23.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth          1m42.943s 14
24.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth     1m43.124s 16
 

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European GP: Maldonado tenth in FP3
Discussion started by Williams F1 , 23/06/2012 11:18
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