|
As the Williams
Martini team prepared for the opening Friday practice session for the 2014
British Grand Prix it should be remembered that this race is a milestone for
Felipe Massa being his 200th Grand Prix. Also in this session we would see
Suzie Wolff become the first woman to take part in a Formula One weekend for
twenty two years, taking over Valtteri Bottas' car for this session. For the
weekend Pirelli had brought their medium and hard tyres as the session got
underway with Magnussen out first. For the first thirty minutes of the session the drivers would
have an extra set of the hard tyres as more drivers would follow him out
with Suzie being the first out for the Williams team. The only drivers yet
to come out were Massa and Hamilton.
Both Hamilton and Massa would take to the track as Suzie pitted. The track
now only had two cars on it but Felipe and Hamilton would pit leaving the
track empty. With fifteen minutes completed drivers would start to come back
out including Suzie, Ericsson, Vergne, Button, Van der Gar. Maldonado was at
the end of the pit lane and was told to stop the car and turn off the
engine. Magnussen and Kvyat were also out as Felipe also come out. The first lap time was from Ericsson
with a 1m:50.811. Wolff and Button would go faster with Wolff quickest with
a 1m:42.212 and a 1m:46.867 from Button. The track was now very busy with
Vergne now second with a 1m:44.551. Van der Gar would go quickest but was
quickly beaten by Rosberg with a 1m:40.100. But Button and Felipe would move
into first and second with Button setting a 1m:38.412 and Felipe a
1m:39.461.
Raikkonen was now second while Suzie would stop out on the track at Club
saying that she had lost oil pressure. Gutierrez was now third followed by
Felipe, Perez, Rosberg, Vergne, and Alonso in eighth. Magnussen was now
sixth as Suzie's car was pushed off the track. Hamilton was now in second,
1m:38.697, but this would become fourth as Vergne and Kvyat went first and
second in their Torro Rosso's. Felipe was now down in eighth as we had the
Ferrari's go quickest with Alonso fastest with a 1m:36.889 and Raikkonen
second. Ricciardo was third but Rosberg would move to the top of the times
with a 1m:36.058. But for Williams the session would get even worse as
Felipe went off after a big crash. His accident would bring out the red flag
with Felipe's car badly damaged both front and rear. Felipe had just run
wide at Stowe enough to put his car into a spin seeing his car run across
the track with smoke coming from his tyres hitting the barrier on the other
side of the track.
Felipe was able to get out of his car and walk away as the track was
cleared. A very difficult start for the Williams team. Felipe would say that
it was a "shame to start the weekend like this". Both Felipe and Suzie's
cars were returned to the Williams pit allowing the team to assess the
damage to Felipe's car and what the issue was with Suzie's. With just over
forty five minutes remaining the session would go green with Kvyat coming
back out. The top ten was Rosberg from Alonso, Raikkonen,
Ricciardo, Magnussen, Kvyat, Vergne, Button, Hamilton, and Gutierrez.
Raikkonen, Vergne, Grosjean, Vettel, and Juncadella we out on the track.
Button was next out as Vettel moved up to ninth with a 1m:38.497. Both
Caterham's were also out as Button moved up to fourth with a 1m:36.963.
Maldonado would not be coming back out as his car was now in pieces.
Kvyat was fifth followed by Vettel with a 1m:37.195. It was confirmed that
Suzie's session was over. Button and Kvyat had pitted as we now had Hamilton
second with a 1m:36.155, followed by Alonso and Ricciardo. Rosberg would
improve with a 1m:35.424 to be 0.731 ahead of Hamilton. Ericsson would go
off at Beckets getting stuck not able to get a gear ending his session. With
just under half an hour remaining and the track was now fairly empty as the minutes counted down.
Both Merced cars would return to the track with fifteen minutes remaining.
Ricciardo would be forced to run slowly back to his pit with what was
believed to be a gearbox issue seeing him pit. Both Ferrari's were also back
out wit the track again quite busy. Even with his crash Felipe was down in
seventeenth and Suzie twenty first. With the top ten all out on the track
including Ricciardo who had returned to the track after his gearbox scare.
The session would end with the top ten Rosberg from Hamilton, Alonso,
Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Vettel, Button, Kvyat, Vergne, and Magnussen. For the
Williams team the session was a very difficult one with the major concern
being whether the team would be able to get either car out onto the track
for the second Friday session. Suzie's car was not damaged but the nature of
her issue was still unclear. For Felipe his car was very badly damaged and
it was now down to his mechanics to see if they could get his car repaired. It will be a very busy time for the team in
the gap between the sessions. |