British GP: Frustrating FP2 for Williams


Pastor Maldonado

By Andrew Hooper
July 6 2012

The second Friday practice session for the 2012 British GP would be a frustrating time for the Williams F1 team what with the continued rain as well as Bruno Senna crashing his car heavily.

 
 British GP Friday 2nd Practice
 
Maldonado
 

The start of the second Friday practice would still see the rain falling and as such there would not be a rush of drivers taking to the track. The first driver to leave the pit lane would be Glock followed by Alonso, with Alonso not having set a time in the first session. Raikkonen and Senna would also come out. Bruno Senna would be back in the cockpit after having to watch Valtteri Bottas run in the morning session. Alonso would pit as Glock set a 2m:11.964. Raikkonen would also pit while Bruno was told that if it was too wet to come in. Glock would improve with a 2m:10.700 while Bruno would set a 2m:10.215. Bruno would say that there was no point driving in the conditions with lots of standing water on the track. Glock and Senna would both pit leaving the track empty.

For Pirelli it was not looking good for the new hard tyre testing that they had planned. With twenty minutes of the session run the rain continued to fall and it did not look like any driver was in a hurry to take to the track. Pastor was still in his car helmet on. The rain was expected to ease in around twenty minutes leaving the teams with only around thirty minutes of running. As the rain eased the first driver to come out would be Kobayashi followed by Pic. The second Sauber of Perez was next out joined by Massa and Alonso. Kobayashi would set a 2m:04.198 to be quickest. Both Massa and Alonso would pit without setting a time. Alonso had gone out on intermediates, looking to save his wet weather tyres.

Perez would set a 2m:00.395 to be quickest. Both the Ferraris' would return to the track as Kobayashi set a 1m:59.405 to again be fastest. Both Petrov and Hulkenberg would come out joined by Kovalainen. Perez was again fastest with a 1m:59.089 as Bruno took to the track. The Sauber's would swap the fastest time with Kobayashi setting a 1m:58.894 as the conditions improved. We would also have Vettel, Webber, Pastor, and Grosjean also come out with just over half and hour remaining. Petrov was now third with a 2m:06.392 followed by Hulkenberg and Bruno. Bruno would set a 2m:01.099 to be third. More drivers would come out including both Mercedes cars, Button, and Di Resta. Kovalainen was up to fourth with a 2m:01.770 but he would drop down the order as Massa and Hulkenberg moved into third and fourth.

Vettel was now fifth with a 2m:00.941 but the session would be stopp3ed when Bruno would crash is car damaging the left front corner as well as the rear of the car. Bruno had lost control of his car at Brooklands with his car going into the barrier backwards. He had aquaplaned which saw him crash. Pastor had returned to his pit prior to Bruno's accident but with the session stopped the track was empty. Replays had shown that Bruno had put his car on the white line seeing the FW34 snap sideways and across the gravel and into the tyre barrier. Bruno's car would be removed and the session would go green and it would be Kobayashi first out followed by Vergne. More drivers would come out with twenty minutes remaining. We would also have both McLaren's, both Mercedes, Di Resta, and Ricciardo take to the track. Alonso and both Torro Rosso cars were out on intermediates. Kobayashi would set a 1m:57.613 to be quickest.

Rosberg would move into second with a 1m:58.237. Di Resta was up to fourth but this would become fifth as Hamilton went fourth fastest with a 1m:59.208. Schumacher was now second with lap of 1m:58.192. Rosberg was third but he would move back up to second with a 1m:58.018. Di Resta was now sixth from Vettel, Massa, Hulkenberg, and Alonso in tenth. Hamilton was now fastest with a 1m:56.345 with Kobayashi second with a 1m:56.474. Button was now sixth, 1m:59.087, but he would improve with a 1m:57.948. Perez was fourth followed by Schumacher. For Williams Pastor was back out and with just under ten minutes remaining he would move up to eighth with a 1m:59.472. This would become tenth as Kovalainen moved up to eighth, 1m:59.203. Raikkonen was now up to seventh with a time of 1m:58.897 seeing Pastor now eleventh. Both Red Bull cars were out on the track as the session drew to a close. Both Red Bull cars were out on the intermediate as Webber pitted.

Schumacher was fifth with a time of 1m:57.701, as Pastor pitted. Schumacher would improve with a 1m;56.545 to be third. Vettel would also pit struggling on the intermediates. As the final minutes counted down drivers would start to return to their pits and with the end of the session the top ten was Hamilton from Kobayashi, Schumacher, Rosberg, Perez, Button, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, and Alonso in tenth. Alonso would spin at Stowe hitting the tyre barrier taking of his front wing. For Williams Pastor had dropped to twelfth while Bruno was down in seventeenth. Pastor had only completed six laps and Bruno the same amount. But for Bruno's mechanics they now had the task of rebuilding a very damaged FW34. A day where not a lot was learnt so the Saturday practice would have even more importance if it is drier.

 
Senna
 
Pos  Driver         	 Team		       Time      Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m56.345s 8
 2.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m56.474s 15
 3.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m56.545s 11
 4.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m56.567s 9
 5.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m57.493s 13
 6.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m57.948s 9
 7.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault      1m58.580s 10
 8.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault         1m58.897s 8
 9.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  1m58.943s 11
10.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m59.015s 14
11.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m59.429s 9
12.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault      1m59.472s 6
13.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m59.476s 10
14.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m59.854s 7
15.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               2m00.565s 7
16.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth     2m00.820s 11
17.  Bruno Senna         Williams-Renault      2m01.099s 6
18.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault      2m01.348s 12
19.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth     2m03.719s 8
20.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth          2m04.774s 8
21.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault                   1
22.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari              2
23.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault                1
24.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth
 

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British GP: Frustrating FP2 for Williams
Discussion started by Williams F1 , 06/07/2012 15:52
Williams F1
06/07/2012 15:52
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