Mexican GP: FP3 sees improvement from Williams Martini


By Andrew Hooper
October 29 2016

The final practice session for the 2016 Mexican GP would see the Williams Martini team improve over their Friday results. Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa would finish in 5th and 8th. The session was uneventful with both drivers completing their qualifying simulations. The one good thing to come from the session was the fact that both Williams drivers were ahead of their Force India rivals.

 
  Williams Martini Mexican GP Saturday Practice
 
Bottas
 

Team Summary:
The final practice session for the 2016 Mexican GP would see whether they have found that extra pace. First out for the sixty minute session would be the Hass cars with both driving through the pit lane and completing practice starts. More drivers would start to come out with Ocon setting a 1m:32.013 while Wehrlein would go quicker with a 1m:29.509. Most drivers were pitting after single installation laps. Wehrlein would set a 1m:22.743 to be quickest from Ocon, Rosberg and Hamilton. Rosberg would go quickest but Hamilton would set a 1m:20.158 to be quickest. Hulkenberg was now third running on the soft tyre. Perez also on the soft tyre would move up to third followed by Sainz and Kvyat. Both the Torro Rosso cars were on the supersoft tyre where as the Mercedes cars were on the soft tyre.

Hamilton would go quicker with a 1m:19.721 which was faster than the times from Friday on the supersoft. Twenty minutes into the session and Felipe had move up to fourth. Vettel was now second with a 1m:20.048 running on the soft tyre seeing the Williams pair now fourth and sixth. Sainz was fifth with a 1m:20.734 running on the supersoft tyre. Verstappen would move up to second with a 1m:19.959 followed by Vettel, Rosberg, Valtteri, Ricciardo, Sainz and Felipe. Ricciardo was now second with twenty seven minutes remaining. Perez and Hulkenberg were in ninth and eleventh but Hulkenberg would move up to eighth. Both Williams cars were quickest in the speed trap as both Mercedes cars were on soft tyre runs. Both would pit as the track became clearer. The track would again become very busy with Verstappen going fastest with a 1m:19.137 as Hulkenberg moved into eighth. Ricciardo was now second with a 1m:19.444 with the Williams pair now fourth and fifth. Vettel would move up to fifth splitting the two Williams.

Hamilton would move up to second but Ricciardo would move ahead but Hamilton was able to set a 1m:19.231 to be second. Rosberg was now fourth with a 1m:19.618 as both Mercedes cars pitted. With the end of the session the Williams cars were in fifth and eighth which was an improvement with both drivers that much closer to the cars in front. Also both Williams cars were ahead of their Force India rivals.

Valtteri Bottas:
Valtteri was in his car with the start of the session waiting to be sent out. Valtteri would be first out for Williams but he would pit. On his installation lap Valtteri was on the medium tyre. With thirty eight minutes remaining Valtteri was back out and his first time would see him move up to third with a 1m:20.680 also on the supersoft tyre. Valtteri was able to improve with a 1m:20.294 to be currently fifth. He would drop to sixth as he pitted to also complete a practice start. Valtteri would also pit with twenty minutes remaining. With Felipe on his simulation Valtteri would come back out also on the supersoft tyre. His first lap would see him set a 1m:19.811 to be third. He would drop to fourth with Felipe right behind. As Valtteri pitted he would be fifth but he would complete a practice start prior to the end of the session.

Felipe Massa:
It would be a few more minutes into the session before Felipe would come out for his first run. Felipe would be on the supersoft tyre and would set a 1m:20.747 to be fourth. This was 1.026 behind the soft tyre time set by Hamilton. Felipe would have a lockup of the right front taking to the grass at Turn one. Felipe would drop to sixth then eighth. Felipe would return to the pit lane running through to complete a practice start at the end of the pit lane. Felipe would drop to ninth behind Hulkenberg. Felipe would pit allowing the team to complete a practice pit stop. Felipe would be one of the first cars to be back out for their qualifying simulations. Felipe would set a 1m:20.573 to be seventh running on the supersoft tyre. Felipe's lap would have an error as he locked up in the final stadium section. Felipe would improve with a 1m:19.997 to move up to fourth. He would drop to fifth then eighth. Felipe would also come in and complete another practice start prior to pitting with the end of the session.

 
Massa
 

Pos  Driver         	Team		        Time     Laps
1  Max Verstappen 	Red Bull-Renault 	1m19.137s 16 
2  Lewis Hamilton 	Mercedes 		0.094s    23 
3  Daniel Ricciardo 	Red Bull-Renault 	0.233s    17 
4  Nico Rosberg 	Mercedes 		0.481s    27 
5  Valtteri Bottas 	Williams-Mercedes 	0.674s    19 
6  Sebastian Vettel 	Ferrari 		0.800s    16 
7  Kimi Raikkonen 	Ferrari 		0.857s    16 
8  Felipe Massa 	Williams-Mercedes 	0.860s    22 
9  Nico Hulkenberg 	Force India-Mercedes 	1.118s    21 
10 Carlos Sainz 	Toro Rosso-Ferrari 	1.188s    22 
11 Sergio Perez 	Force India-Mercedes 	1.335s    20 
12 Daniil Kvyat 	Toro Rosso-Ferrari 	1.449s    20 
13 Fernando Alonso 	McLaren-Honda 		1.463s    18 
14 Jolyon Palmer 	Renault 		1.822s    18 
15 Jenson Button 	McLaren-Honda 		2.015s    19 
16 Marcus Ericsson 	Sauber-Ferrari 		2.108s    21 
17 Esteban Gutierrez 	Haas-Ferrari 		2.201s    16 
18 Kevin Magnussen 	Renault 		2.208s    17 
19 Romain Grosjean 	Haas-Ferrari 		2.464s    15 
20 Pascal Wehrlein 	Manor-Mercedes 		2.621s    23 
21 Esteban Ocon 	Manor-Mercedes 		2.784s    22 
22 Felipe Nasr 		Sauber-Ferrari 		3.217s    18
 
Massa
 

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Mexican GP: FP3 sees improvement from Williams Martini
Discussion started by Williams F1 , 29/10/2016 17:31
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29/10/2016 17:31
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:10:29:17:33:57 by Andrew Hooper.

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