Abu Dhabi GP: Williams Martini outside top ten in FP2


By Andrew Hooper
November 28 2015

Despite it been a normal day for the Williams Martini team in terms of their Friday practice programme they would find themselves outside the top ten after the second Friday practice for the 2015 Abu Dhabi GP. Valtteri Bottas would finish in 11th while team-mate Felipe Massa was one place behind in 12th. These results were behind what the Williams team wanted but they are hopefuil that they can find something that will give them better lap times on Saturday.

 
  Williams Martini Abu Dhabi GP Friday 2nd Practice
 
Bottas
 

Team Summary:
In what would be a far more representative session given the time and the use of the lights the Williams Martini team would prepare for the second Friday practice session. With the early times it would be Raikkonen quickest with a 1m:44.237 from Perez and Hulkenberg. The Williams team had reverted to 2015 parts having run 2016 parts on their cars in the first session. Raikkonen would go quicker with a 1m:43.994 with Vettel now second. Rosberg would move ahead setting a 1m:43.305 to be quickest. Ten minutes into the session and neither Williams car had come out as Hamilton went fourth. Both Williams cars would finally come out running on the soft tyre. A 1M:42.899 from Rosberg seeing him leading by 1.095 over Raikkonen. Hamilton would also improve and would go quickest with a 1m:42.524.

The sun was now starting to fall with the track getting darker. A 1m:42.767 from Rosberg but he would remain second. Both Felipe and Valtteri continued to lap the circuit with twenty minutes completed. First to come out on the super soft tyre was Raikkonen. With twenty five minutes of the session completed both Williams cars would pit. But Valtteri would come back out as Raikkonen set a 1m:42.885
to be third. More drivers were coming out on the option tyre including Ricciardo, Vettel and Kvyat. Vettel would go second with a 1m:42.717 but Ricciardo would move ahead with a 1m:42.647. Rosberg was out on the option tyre joined by Hamilton. Rosberg would set a 1m:41.983 to go quickest. Hamilton would set a 1m:42.121 to remain second, despite going quickest in the middle sector. Forty five
minutes remaining and the Williams pair were tenth and eleventh. They would rop to eleventh and twelfth with forty minutes remaining.

Several drivers were now out on the soft tyre as drivers went about longer runs. Both Williams drivers were out for their second run on used option tyres. Felipe would switch to the soft tyre seeing the Williams team split their tyre testing. With six minutes left the track was now quite busy with Rosberg still quickest from Hamilton, Perez, Ricciardo, Vettel, Kvyat, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Alonso, and Maldonado. Both Williams drivers continued their long runs on the soft tyre as the session drew to a close. The session would end with Valtteri completing sixteen laps and Felipe
twenty laps on the soft tyre.

Felipe Massa:
Felipe's car was still been worked on with the start of the session. Felipe would follow Valtteri out would set a 1m:44.442 to be eighth. His time was 1.9 seconds off the quickest time. Felipe would remove tear offs from his visor as it got darker. The tear offs were quite dark making visibility difficult. Felipe would run wide at Turn one but would continue. Felipe would pit after six laps. After a short break he would come back out running on the option tyre, currently eleventh. Felipe would set a 1m:43.734 to be eighth but he was 1.7 seconds behind the quickest time. Felipe would find
time setting a 1m:43.506 but would remain eighth. He would drop to ninth to be behind Hulkenberg. Felipe had pitted after five laps on the option tyre. After a short stop Felipe would come back out on the used option tyres. Felipe would pit switching to the soft tyre ending the session in twelfth.

Valtteri Bottas:
Valtteri would lead out the Williams cars. Valtteri's first lap was a 1m:44.663 to see him tenth. Valtteri would complete eight laps prior to pitting. Valtteri had dropped to thirteenth. Fifty minutes remaining and Valtteri had yet to come back out. But shortly after he would come out running on the option tyre. Valtteri would find time on the super soft tyre finishing with a 1m:43.536 to be tenth one place behind his team-mate. But Valtteri would move ahead of Felipe with a 1m:43.441. Valtteri would also pit after five laps on the option tyre. Valtteri was back out with thirty minutes remaining also on used option tyres. Valtteri would tell his team that the front tyre graining is now "pretty bad on the front right". Valtteri would pit with twelve minutes remaining switching to the soft tyre. He would finish the session in eleventh.

 
Massa
 

Pos  Driver         	Team		        Gap      Laps
1  Nico Rosberg		Mercedes		1m41.983s 39
2  Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		1m42.121s 31
3  Sergio Perez		Force India-Mercedes	1m42.610s 23
4  Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1m42.647s 37
5  Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari			1m42.717s 35
6  Daniil Kvyat		Red Bull-Renault	1m42.798s 34
7  Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari			1m42.849s 36
8  Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1m42.928s 35
9  Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda		1m42.955s 31
10 Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Mercedes		1m43.431s 37
11 Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1m43.441s 32
12 Felipe Massa		Williams-Mercedes	1m43.506s 33
13 Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	1m43.662s 40
14 Carlos Sainz		Toro Rosso-Renault	1m43.854s 20
15 Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Mercedes		1m43.929s 27
16 Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda		1m44.050s 32
17 Felipe Nasr		Sauber-Ferrari		1m44.116s 37
18 Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari		1m45.245s 28
19 Will Stevens		Marussia-Ferrari	1m46.450s 35
20 Roberto Merhi	Marussia-Ferrari	1m47.022s 27
 
Massa
 

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