Singapore GP: Williams Martini outside the top ten in FP2


By Andrew Hooper
September 16 2016

The second Friday practice sessionfor the 2016 Singapore GP would see both Williams Mrtini drivers finish outside the top ten. Felipe Massa would again lead his team-mate finishing in 14th while Valtteri Bottas was 15th. Both drivers would finish over 2.5 seconds off the quickest time. Despite this the Williams team would comment that there lack of performance compare to other teams was not something of major concern given their fuel and engine settings. Saturday practice will confirm how accurate such statements are.

 
  Williams Martini Singapore GP Friday 2nd Practice
 
Massa
 

Team Summary:
The opening Friday practice session for the 2016 Singapore GP would be an uneventful one for the Williams Martini team with their drivers finishing ninth and fourteenth. Not having looked like they were out for outright pace the second session should see both drivers using the ultrasoft tyre for the first time making their pace somewhat clearer. With the start of the session quite a few drivers would come out with a mix of soft and supersoft tyres being used. Gutierrez would set a 1m:48.700 using the supersoft tyre, but Vettel would go quicker with a 1m:47.475 on the soft tyre. Raikkonen would move ahead with a 1m:46.1657 on the supersoft tyre. Rosberg was now second with a 1m:46.990 on the soft tyre. Kvyat and Sainz would go second and third on the supersoft tyre.

Neither Williams car had come out with ten minutes of the session run. Several of the teams had split their strategy with the soft and supersoft tyres being used. Hamilton would go quickest with a 1m:45.275 running on the supersoft tyre. Ricciardo would go second with a 1m:45.620 followed by Raikkonen and Hulkenberg. Verstappen was fifth while Felipe would move up to eleventh. Verstappen would improve to be third, 1m:46.028. After their first runs the Williams drivers were in eleventh and sixteenth with the pair splitting their running between the supersoft and soft tyres. Their championship rivals Force India were fifth and sixth well ahead of the Williams pair.

The top eight were all on the supersoft tyre with a few drivers starting to come out on the ultrasoft tyre. Kvyat would move up to sixth while Vettel would set a 1m:45.266 to be quickest using the ultrasoft tyre. Raikkonen would go quickest with a 1m:44.427 but Rosberg would go quicker with a 1m:44.152 both on the ultrasoft tyre. Hamilton was now fourth after a poor run but Hulkenberg would go into this spot as Verstappen went third. After their ultrasoft runs the Williams pair were twelfth and thirteenth with both over 2.5 seconds off the pace. Everyone except Ricciardo and Button had completed their runs on the ultrasoft tyre. Ricciardo was out on the ultrasoft tyre and would set a 1m:44.557 to be fourth. Drivers were all on longer runs with most on the ultrasoft tyre.

Both Williams drivers would complete their ultrasoft tyre runs returning with one driver on the soft and the other supersoft tyre. The Williams team had used this opportunity to carry out pit stop practice. The Williams team would comment that there lack of pace was not something to worry about as they were on their usual Friday setups with high fuel and lower power modes in the engine. The session would come to an end with Felipe and Valtteri remaining fourteenth and fifteenth. The top ten was Rosberg followed by Raikkonen, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Vettel, Hulkenberg, Hamilton, Sainz, Alonso and Kvyat.

Valtteri Bottas:
Valtteri would leave his pit with fifteen minutes of the session completed but he was on the soft tyre. Valtteri would complete his first lap setting a 1m:48.676 to be sixteenth dropping to seventeenth. Valtteri would be able to improve moving up to fourteenth with a 1m:48.458. Valtteri was on a quicker lap finishing with a 1m:46.960 to be thirteenth just behind his team-mate. After his run Valtteri would pit. Valtteri would also return on used ultrasoft tyres but would pit after a single lap. He would return after a short stop joining Felipe. Valtteri was lapping in the mid 1m:51s. Valtteri would pit returning on a set of soft tyres. He had completed twelve laps on the ultrasoft tyre. With the end of the session Valtteri would complete seventeen laps on the soft tyre.

Felipe Massa:
Felipe would be first out in the second session running on new supersoft tyres. Felipe's first lap would see him set a 1m:48.177 to be eleventh. After a single flying lap Felipe would pit. While in the pit he would drop to twelfth. Felipe would return to the track with just under an hour remaining also on the ultrasoft tyre. Felipe would set a 1m:46.856 to be only twelfth pitting after his run. With half the session complete Felipe was back out on the used ultrasoft tyre. He would also set times in the mid 1m:51s and low 1m:52s like his team-mate. Felipe would pit coming back out on supersoft tyres. Felipe had complete fourteen laps on the ultrasoft tyre. His last run on the supersoft tyre would see him complete fifteen laps.

 
BOttas
 

Pos  Driver         	Team		        Time     Laps
1  Nico Rosberg 	Mercedes 		1m44.152s 34 
2  Kimi Raikkonen 	Ferrari 		1m44.427s 34 
3  Max Verstappen 	Red Bull-Renault 	1m44.532s 29 
4  Daniel Ricciardo 	Red Bull-Renault 	1m44.557s 26 
5  Sebastian Vettel 	Ferrari 		1m45.161s 33 
6  Nico Hulkenberg 	Force India-Mercedes 	1m45.182s 35 
7  Lewis Hamilton 	Mercedes 		1m45.275s 10 
8  Carlos Sainz 	Toro Rosso-Ferrari 	1m45.507s 33 
9  Fernando Alonso 	McLaren-Honda 		1m45.779s 30 
10 Daniil Kvyat 	Toro Rosso-Ferrari 	1m46.029s 35 
11 Sergio Perez 	Force India-Mercedes 	1m46.063s 26 
12 Jenson Button 	McLaren-Honda 		1m46.574s 30 
13 Esteban Gutierrez 	Haas-Ferrari 		1m46.727s 36 
14 Felipe Massa 	Williams-Mercedes 	1m46.856s 30 
15 Valtteri Bottas 	Williams-Mercedes 	1m46.960s 30 
16 Kevin Magnussen 	Renault 		1m47.161s 30 
17 Jolyon Palmer 	Renault 		1m47.166s 34 
18 Felipe Nasr 		Sauber-Ferrari 		1m47.531s 29 
19 Romain Grosjean 	Haas-Ferrari 		1m48.391s 12 
20 Marcus Ericsson 	Sauber-Ferrari 		1m48.487s 32 
21 Pascal Wehrlein 	Manor-Mercedes 		1m48.505s 33 
22 Esteban Ocon 	Manor-Mercedes 		1m48.823s 29 
 
Bottas
 

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Singapore GP: Williams Martini outside the top ten in FP2
Discussion started by Williams F1 , 16/09/2016 16:16
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