European GP: Frustrating FP3 for Williams Martini


By Andrew Hooper
June 18 2016

The final practice session for the 2016 European GP would be a frustrating time for the Williams Martini team with Felipe Massa only finishing in 14th while team-mate Valtteri Bottas not setting a time after having his car badly damaged when a lose drain cover would fly up and hit the underneath of his car. THis would see a significant amount of damage with the damage being so major that the team would announce that Valtteri would not be returning to the track.

 
  Williams Martini European GP Saturday Practice
 
Baku Circuit
 

Team Summary:
The final practice session would start with both cars coming out for their installation laps but Valtteri would suffer damage to his car when he returned to the pit lane when a drain cover would come up hitting the underneath. He would return to his garage and it was announced by the team that he would not return to the track such was the damage. For Felipe Massa he would set an early time but would drop down the order and then would have to pit when he made contact with the wall. Upon his return he would move up to sixth and then fourth running on the supersoft tyre.

With forty minutes of the session completed Rosberg would be quickest with a 1m:45.435 followed by Hamilton and Vettel. Felipe was fourth followed by Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Button, Kvyat, Perez and Verstappen tenth. With fifteen minutes remaining Felipe had dropped to fifth then seventh to be behind Verstappen. Rosberg was out on a quick lap setting the fastest time in the first two sectors. He would finish with a 1m:44.610 to remain fastest. Felipe was now eleventh as more drivers set quicker times. Hulkenberg was now second behind Rosberg. As the session drew to a close Felipe would be fourteenth as Hamilton went fastest in sector one. He would finish with a 1m:44.352 to be quickest with Rosberg second. Right at the end of the session Perez would hit the wall at the same place Ricciardo had his accident on Friday.

The final order for the top ten was Hamilton, Rosberg, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Vettel, Perez, Verstappen, Button, Kvyat and Raikkonen. For Williams the session really did not give any real indication how things will go in qualifying what with the damage to Valtteri's car and again Felipe seemed to struggle for pace but he his day that the car did feel better and it appeared that his was focusing on a longer run.

Felipe Massa:
For Felipe he would go out running on the supersoft tyre and would set a time of 1m:48.346 and his first run would see him complete seven laps prior to pitting. But Felipe would also make contact with an object this time it was when he had oversteer in his car and would touch the wall. He would pit as a result to have his car checked. All would be OK with Felipe's car and up on his return he would set a 1m:46.755 to be sixth. His next run was a 1m:46.510 to move up to fourth. He would pit having completed six laps. Felipe would say that his car "feels much better now" and was again talking to his engineer on how to make further improvements. Felipe would drop to fifth then seventh as he returned to the track. Felipe would continue to drop down the times as he continued running on a set of used supersoft tyres. He was now twelfth with seven minutes remaining. This would be come fourteenth but Felipe was on a long run on the supersoft tyre.

Valtteri Bottas:
Valtteri would take to the track with the start of the session running on the medium tyre but upon his return his car would go over a drain cover that was lose and this would damage his car. Valtteri had yet to set a time and had only completed three laps. "I think some drain cover or something came up in the pitlane, have a look at the car," would say Valtteri. There was a lot of work for the Williams team to repair his car and it was not looking good for his return. The team would announce that such was the damage that Valtteri would not be coming back out.

 
Massa
 

Pos  Driver         	Team		        Time     Laps
1  Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		1m44.352s 17
2  Nico Rosberg		Mercedes		1m44.610s 22
3  Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1m45.540s 18
4  Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1m45.620s 13
5  Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari			1m45.630s 20
6  Sergio Perez		Force India-Mercedes	1m45.735s 17
7  Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Renault	1m45.901s 14
8  Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda		1m45.954s 17
9  Daniil Kvyat		Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1m45.981s 19
10 Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari			1m46.024s 16
11 Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda		1m46.131s 16
12 Carlos Sainz		Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1m46.190s 17
13 Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari		1m46.361s 21
14 Felipe Massa		Williams-Mercedes	1m46.510s 20
15 Esteban Gutierrez	Haas-Ferrari		1m46.670s 21
16 Kevin Magnussen	Renault			1m47.024s 16
17 Pascal Wehrlein	Manor-Mercedes		1m47.100s 19
18 Jolyon Palmer	Renault			1m47.158s 18
19 Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari		1m47.328s 14
20 Felipe Nasr		Sauber-Ferrari		1m47.379s 18
21 Rio Haryanto		Manor-Mercedes		1m47.556s 18
22 Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	-	  1
 
Bottas
 

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European GP: Frustrating FP3 for Williams Martini
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