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The second Friday practice for
the 2014 Spanish Grand Prix would see Valtteri Bottas return for the
Williams Martini team. The session would get underway with Ericsson out
first. One driver who would not be running would be Vettel who had an
electrical problem with his car in the earlier session. Further drivers
would take to the track with both Lotus cars out on the track. Both Torro
Rosso cars were also out on the track as both McLaren's also came out. A
1m:39.717 from Ericsson which was quickly beaten by Grosjean with a
1m:30.574. Maldonado would go quicker with a time of 1m:29.275 as Valtteri
took to the track. Chilton was told to pit with an engine problem reported
to him. Kvyat was now second with a 1m:29.767 followed by Grosjean, Gutierrez, Bianchi, and Kobayashi.
Magnussen was now second, 1m:29.566, with all the drivers running on the
hard tyre. Vergne would move up to fourth, 1m:29.836, as Ricciardo and
Hamilton left the pit lane. Magnussen was now fastest with a 1m:28.815, but
was passed by team-mate Button with a 1m:28.703. Grosjean was now sixth
followed by Gutierrez and Valtteri. Valtteri had set a 1m:31.526. Maldonado and Kvyat would pit with
Felipe Massa yet to come out. Valtteri had improved with a 1m:31.053 but he
would drop to ninth. Ricciardo would go quickest with a 1m:27.644 but
Hamilton would go quicker with a 1m:27.448. A 1m:31.012 from Valtteri but he
would remain ninth while Rosberg was out but running fairly slowly. Valtteri
would pit with replays showing him getting his car quite sideways at the
final chicane.
Rosberg was now second with a 1m:27.522 while Hamilton had improved with a
time of 1m:27.061. Felipe was now out on the track as Alonso and Raikkonen
going fourth and fifth. Hulkenberg was eighth as Ricciardo pitted. Valtteri
was now thirteenth while Felipe would go ninth with a 1m:29.188. It was
reported that the Williams team had updated the design of the side pods as
well as updates to the front wing. Felipe would move into eighth, 1m:29.120,
as Valtteri came back out. Felipe would pit having completed just four laps.
The track was now fairly empty with an hour and five minutes remaining.
Maldonado would be the first driver to run on the medium tyre setting a
1m:27.866 to be fourth. Chilton and Sutil had yet to set a time as
Valtteri completed more laps having dropped to eighteenth. Ricciardo was now
out on the medium tyre and would go fastest in the middle sector. Of the top
ten only Ricciardo was out on the track as Valtteri pitted.
Sutil would set a time to be fourteenth as Ricciardo set a 1m:26.509 to be
fastest. Raikkonen was back out followed by Rosberg and both Ferrari's.
Hamilton was also out on the medium tyre with both Ferrari's and Rosberg
also coming out on the option tyre. Raikkonen was now third with a
1m:27.296, as the Mercedes swapped fastest sector times. Rosberg would go
fastest with a 1m:25.973 to be quickest, but quickly he would be beaten by
Hamilton with a 1m:25.524. Felipe would also come out on the medium tyre
with fifty minutes remaining. Valtteri was also back out running on the
softer tyre. More drivers would come out for their medium tyre runs as both
Mercedes pitted. Alonso was now fourth, 1m:27.121 but was 1.5 seconds off
Hamilton's time. Kvyat was up to seventh with Maldonado now sixth. Button
was sixth while Felipe would improve to be seventh with a time of 1m:27.824,
but this was 2.3 seconds off the quickest time.
Valtteri was now eleventh, 1m:28.698 but Vergne would take this spot with a
1m:28.049. Valtteri would drop to be fourteenth with thirty five minutes
remaining. Drivers were coming back out for longer runs with Felipe coming
back out. Hamilton was still fastest from Rosberg, Ricciardo, Alonso,
Raikkonen, Magnussen, Button, Felipe, Maldonado, and Kvyat. Felipe was running on the hard tyre while
Valtteri was back out on medium tyres. There were only a handful of cars
still in their pits. Both of the Williams drivers were practicing their
starts at the end of the pit lane. The Williams drivers were running
opposite tyre testing with Valtteri setting times in the 1m:33s having
completed fourteen laps on his set of medium tyres. Felipe had
completed fifteen laps on his hard tyres with sixteen minutes remaining.
Where as Hamilton who was also on a log run on the medium tyre was setting
times in the 1m:31s.
Little would change as the session drew to a close apart from Maldonado
being told that he had a gearbox problem and was told to pit. Vergne would
go off at Turn one having lost a right rear tyre. Both Valtteri and Felipe
would complete pit stop practice on their return. the Williams was seen to
also be running new rear mirrors with different mounts. It was also revealed
that Valtteri was not running with all the same updates as Felipe in order
to gain a comparison. |