European GP: Mixed result for Williams Martini in FP2
By Andrew Hooper
June 17 2016
The second Friday practice session for the 2016 European GP would see a very mixed result for the Williams Matini team. Valtteri Bottas would run near the front of the times finishing in 4th but for team-mate Felipe Massa he was down in a disappointing 16th. The session would see both drivers complete longer runs on the supersoft tyre with Valtteri also using the medium tyre and Felipe the soft. Valtteri is looking quite comfortable at the front but the team is going to have to find a large amount of time overnight for the Brazilian if he is to have the possibility of a good qualifying result.
Williams
Martini European GP Friday 2nd Practice
Team Summary:
After an issue with the kerbs coming free at certain corners was resolved
the second Friday practice session would get underway. Valtteri Bottas would
be first out for Williams. Gutierrez would set a 1m:50.401 followed by Nasr
and Grosjean. Sainz would go quicker with a 1m:48.691 with Valtteri now
third. Rosberg was now second, 1m:49.376, set on the medium tyre. Perez
would go quickest with a 1m:47.891 followed by Hulkenberg. Sainz would
return to the top of the times followed by the Force India cars. Valtteri
would go qui8ckest only to see Hamilton, 1m:45.102, Rosberg, and Alonso move
ahead. Of the three drivers only Rosberg was on the harder medium tyre.
On his run with the supersoft tyre Valtteri would move up to third as more
drivers started to come out on the supersoft tyre. Valtteri would move up to
second only ot drop to third when Rosberg went fastest with a 1m:44.913.
Hamilton was now second followed by Valtteri, Sainz, Alonso, Perez,
Verstappen, Hulkenberg, and Felipe. Vettel would improve to be fifth,
1m:46.678, set on the supersoft tyre. Perez would move up to fourth with a
1m:45.942. But team-mate Hulkenberg would take this spot as Valtteri pitted.
Hamilton would go quickest in the first two sectors but would make an error
in the final sector seeing him not improve.
Perez was now up to third with Valtteri now fourth. Hamilton would attempt
another quick lap and would set a 1m:44.223 to be quickest 0.690 ahead of
Rosberg. With forty five minutes remaining and the track was quite empty but
with thirty eight minutes remaining the track would again be quite busy.
Most drivers were completing longer runs including both of the Williams
drivers. Rosberg was told to stop by his engineer seeing him pull of to the
side of the track. This would see the Virtual Safety Car being deployed. The
track would again return green. There was a mix of soft and supersoft tyres
out on the track as the session drew to a close. Valtteri would pit taking
on used medium tyres while Felipe was on soft tyres and they would run on
these to the end of the session. Valtteri would finish fourth and Felipe
sixteenth. This was a massive difference between the pair.
Valtteri Bottas:
Valtteri would leave the pit lane first for Williams running on a news set
of medium tyres. His first lap would be a 1m:50.546 to be third but of the
top ten only he and Grosjean were on the medium tyre. Valtteri would drop to
fourth then fifth as those on the soft tyre went quicker. But Valtteri would
improve with a 1m:48.544 to be second. With Hulkenberg improving he would
drop to third and then fifth. Again Valtteri would find time setting a
1m:47.332 to be quickest. But again those on the soft tyre would go quicker
seeing him drop to fourth. After seven laps Valtteri would pit. He would
drop to sixth to be behind Perez and Hulkenberg.
With an hour and ten minutes remaining Valtteri would return running on the
supersoft tyre. He was currently eighth behind Button. On his first quick
lap on the softer tyre he would set a 1m:46.519 to be third, but this was
behind both Mercedes cars. As he completed more laps Valtteri would improve
on his second run. He would set a 1m:45.764 to be second. He would drop to
third and then would pit after seven laps on the softer tyre. He would drop
to fourth. After a time in his garage Valtteri would return to the track
running on used supersoft tyres. With twenty minutes remaining Valtteri had
completed sixteen laps on the supersoft tyre. Valtteri would make a brief
visit to the pits returning to the track. With ten minutes remaining
Valtteri had completed twenty one laps on his long run. He would complete
twenty six laps on the supersoft tyre. He would pit with just minutes left
in the session coming back out on the used medium tyres. Valtteri would
comment that he felt there was more to come from the car.
Felipe Massa:
With five minutes of the session run Felipe was still in his garage but he
would finally come out running on a new set of soft tyres. Felipe would set
a 1m:59.829, a very slow lap, to be twentieth. Felipe would follow this up
with a 1m:47.779 to be eighth. Felipe would drop to eleventh to be behind
Verstappen. Felipe would pit having completed seven laps. Felipe would
follow his team-mate onto the supersoft tyre and would set a 1m:47.302 to be
ninth. With a 1m:47.060 Felipe would improve but he was now only in
eleventh. Felipe would continue to drop down the order with fifty minutes
remaining he was only fifteenth and he would pit. Felipe would drop to
sixteenth as Ricciardo moved ahead of him.
Felipe would return to the track with just over thirty minutes remaining. He
was also on his used set of supersoft tyres. Felipe would pit having
completed fourteen laps. He would return this time on the soft tyre and
would start a longer run. He was currently down in sixteenth. With the end
of the session Felipe had completed thirteen laps on the soft tyre prior to
stopping.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m44.223s 33
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m44.913s 26
3 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m45.336s 37
4 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m45.764s 35
5 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m45.920s 37
6 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m46.027s 35
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Renault 1m46.068s 35
8 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m46.219s 36
9 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1m46.234s 32
10 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m46.293s 32
11 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1m46.498s 27
12 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1m46.681s 29
13 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m46.694s 32
14 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m46.744s 35
15 Esteban Gutierrez Haas-Ferrari 1m46.830s 26
16 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m47.060s 28
17 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1m47.329s 38
18 Rio Haryanto Manor-Mercedes 1m47.487s 33
19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1m47.772s 22
20 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m47.794s 35
21 Pascal Wehrlein Manor-Mercedes 1m48.018s 36
22 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1m48.081s 38
Objectives: Aero evaluations, set-up and tyre work.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: The first impressions of Baku are that it’s clearly a good track and definitely offers us a good opportunity to be near the front. I like the circuit layout and, apart from an issue with the kerbs in FP1 and FP2 which will hopefully be resolved by tomorrow, I think the organisers have done a very good job. As an engineer, it’s definitely an interesting track because it gives you a compromise, because sector three and sectors one and two have very different requirements. Valtteri’s been very happy with the car all day. There’s more to come from him though, because he’s still trying to find his feet around the circuit. Felipe, on the other hand, isn’t as happy with the car. We tried some different set-up options, as you sometimes do when you come to a new circuit, and thankfully at the end of the session we found a good direction and he was much happier with the car, which was reflected in his laptimes. We were reasonable on the low and high fuel runs, which suggests we can be competitive in all situations. So I’m very confident that we can have both cars up there at the front tomorrow with very similar laptimes.
Valtteri Bottas: It was an interesting day for me, I really like the track. It’s very demanding, it has some high speed corners and some twisty, more technical areas, so it’s definitely one of the most challenging tracks on the calendar, but at the same time it’s a lot of fun. Even though I felt good today, we can still improve the car a lot and get more from the tyres. I have high expectations for the weekend, but we have to keep working because at a new track there’s always more to learn, which I enjoy. It’s interesting finding out all the secrets corner by corner. We need to work hard to keep finding more laptime from me and from the car because we have the opportunity for another good result this weekend.
Felipe Massa: It was a very difficult day for me. I was struggling to get the tyres to work and I’ve never had a problem like this so far this season, so it’s something that we need to analyse. I couldn’t drive the car how I would like because the tyres weren’t within the working range, so whenever I was out on track I was struggling massively. All the other drivers were learning a lot and improving every lap but I couldn’t. There’s a lot of work to do before tomorrow, but I’m sure when we have looked at everything and made some changes, I’ll be competitive. It’s a nice track, of course you enjoy it more when everything is working properly, but the track is interesting. It’s not easy to find the lines in certain corners, particularly the slow sections.
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