Bahrain GP: Williams again off the pace in FP2


Pastor Maldonado

By Andrew Hooper
April 19 2013

The second Friday practice for the 2013 Baharain GP would see Williams F1 drivers Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas finish in 16th and 17th. Once again the Williams team was not looking very fast but traditionally they did not go for outright pace on Friday's.

 
 Bahrain GP Friday 2nd Practice
 
Maldonado
 

Despite some rain falling in the lead up to the second Friday practice session it would still be dry and hot as the Williams F1 team go their session underway. First out would be Chilton for Marussia. First out for Williams was Pastor Maldonado running on the hard tyre. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas would follow Pastor shortly after as Chilton set a 1m:42.419. The track was now very busy with only the two Ferrari's and Rosberg still in their pits. Button would go fastest with a 1m:36.164 but was passed by Perez with a 1m:35.866. Pastor's first lap was a slow 1m:45.429 while Valtteri would set a 1m:36.775 to be third. He would drop to fourth as Vergne went third. Ricciardo was now fifth while Raikkonen was ninth, 1m:39.023.

Hamilton was on a quick lap going fastest in sector one. Pastor was seventh, 1m:38.106, but would drop to eighth as Grosjean moved up to fifth, 1m:36.679. Webber would go fastest with a 1m:34.664, with Perez still second followed now by Sutil, Button, Vergne, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Grosjean, Hamilton, and Valtteri now tenth. Pastor had dropped to sixteenth and would pit after five laps. Di Resta was up to sixth, 1m:36.408, but this would be seventh as Alonso went fastest with a 1m:34.317. Massa would join Alonso at the front going third with a 1m:34.776, with Hamilton moving up to fourth, 1m:35.429. Valtteri had joined Pastor in his garage while Sutil and Di Resta were sixth and seventh. Di Resta had improved with a 1m:35.566 as the track started to clear with drivers completing their first runs.

For Williams Valtteri and Pastor were in fifteenth and eighteenth. Vergne would be the first to go out on the medium tyre and would use them to set a 1m:35.506 to be seventh. Only Rosberg and Ricciardo were also out on the track. Both Williams drivers would return to the track as Rosberg improved from tenth to fifth, 1m:35.271. Also on the medium tyre Ricciardo would set a 1m:35.761 to be eleventh despite having found over a second on the softer tyre. Webber was also out on the medium tyre joined by Perez. Both Williams cars were still on the hard tyre for their second run. Webber would go fastest in sector one and two using the medium tyre to good effect. He would finish with a 1m:34.184 to be fastest. This was only half a sector than his time set using the hard tyre.

Valtteri would pit as Alonso came out on the medium tyre. Vettel, Hulkenberg, Gutierrez were also out on the medium tyre. Raikkonen continued with the hard tyre as Vettel set a 1m:34.282 to be second. Alonso was now third followed by Massa and Rosberg. Despite being quickest in sector one Alonso would only set a 1m:34.310 to remain third with just under an hour remaining. Valtteri and Pastor were now seventeenth and eighteenth while Grosjean and Raikkonen were fourteenth and fifteenth. But both teams had yet to run on the medium tyre. Rosberg would remain fifth despite having improved with a 1m:34.666. Team-mate Hamilton was sixth with a 1m:35.424. Gutierrez would suffer a left rear puncture after having made contact with the front wing of Pic's Caterham at Turn eight.

Webber was back out on the same set of medium tyres as both Williams drivers also took to the track. Both cars were now on the medium tyre as was Raikkonen. Grosjean was on a quicker lap setting a 1m:34.631 on his medium tyre. Pastor was also on a quicker lap as Sutil moved into seventh, 1m:34.932, and Pastor finished with a 1m:36.279 to only be sixteenth. Di Resta was now fourth, 1m:34.543, while Raikkonen went fastest in sector one. Valtteri was now seventeenth three tenths slower than Pastor as Raikkonen went fastest in sector two. Raikkonen would finish with a 1m:34.154 to be fastest from Webber and Vettel with Alonso fourth. Valtteri would pit followed by Pastor with just over forty minutes remaining in the session. Alonso would return this time on the hard tyre starting a longer run. Tenth placed Hamilton was on his first run on the medium tyre. Both Williams drivers would return to the track after some setup changes remaining on the medium tyre.

With just over thirty minutes remaining the track was very busy as the Williams team focused on tyre work aiming to complete a combination of short and long runs. Only Webber and Pic were still in their pits as the rest of the field continued to complete longer high fuel runs. Vettel was setting times in the 1m:42s with sixteen laps on his medium tyres. Vettel would pit as Webber came back out. Alonso would also pit at the end of his hard tyre run with times all under the 1m:40s barrier. Pastor was setting times in the 1m:42s on his medium tyre run, while Valtteri was matching his team-mate with just over fifteen minutes remaining in the session. Both drivers had completed twenty four laps so far in the session with both drivers fairly well matched despite been down in sixteenth and seventeenth. Pastor would pit briefly switching to a set of used hard tyres with ten minutes left in the session.

Valtteri would pit having completed his session while Pastor would complete a few more laps prior to pitting finishing his session. The session would end with Raikkonen still fastest with a 1m:34.154 from Webber, Vettel, Alonso, Di Resta, Massa, Grosjean, Rosberg, Sutil, and Hamilton tenth. Once again the Williams team was not looking very fast but traditionally they did not go for outright pace on Friday's. The big test will come in Saturday practice followed by qualifying.

 
Bottas
 
Pos Driver         	  Team		        Time     Laps
 1. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m34.154s 31
 2. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m34.184s 26
 3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m34.282s 29
 4. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m34.310s 28
 5. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m34.543s 35
 6. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m34.552s 34
 7. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m34.631s 33
 8. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m34.666s 37
 9. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m34.932s 33
10. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m34.976s 29
11. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m35.356s 32
12. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m35.506s 36
13. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      1m35.5$9s 36
14. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m35.761s 33
15. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari        1m36.133s 36
16. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m36.279s 33
17. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1m36.579s 28
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1m36.616s 34
19. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault      1m37.061s 32
20. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth     1m37.313s 33
21. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth     1m37.363s 29
22. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault      1m37.970s 34
 
Williams Garage
 

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Bahrain GP: Williams again off the pace in FP2
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