Australian GP: Frustrating FP2 for Williams Martini
By Andrew Hooper
March 24 2017
The second Friday practice session for the 2017 Australian GP would not go as smoothly as the first for the Williams Martini team. The session would see Felipe Massa stop out on the track with what was reported to be a gearbox issue. Team-mate Lance Stroll would continue his runs in the FW40 but he would finish somehwat off the pace once the quicker times started to be seen. Felipe and Lance would finish in 14th and 16th. Quickest was Hamilton by a considerable margin.
Williams
Martini Australian GP Friday 2nd Practice
Team Summary:
The early quickest time was a 1m:26.780 from Grosjean set on the super soft
tyre. Felipe would go quickest fro Williams with Kvyat second. On the soft
tyre Hamilton would go quickest with a 1m:25.283. Bottas would go quickest
using the super soft tyre with a 1m:25.149. Felipe was now third and Lance
eleventh fro Williams. Raikkonen was now fastest with a 1m:25.087 running
the super soft tyre. Vettel was fourth behind the two Mercedes. Vettel would
improve to be quickest with a 1m:24.926. There would be a mixture of tyres
been run in the session as it was red flagged as Palmer hit the barrier at
Turn 16, the final corner. His car was badly damaged with the rear wing
removed s well as suspension damage.
At the front it would be Hamilton who would be first to set a reference time
on the ultra soft tyre setting a 1m:23.620. Vettel was second followed by
Bottas and Raikkonen. For Williams Felipe was thirteenth and Lance fifteenth
with just under forty minutes remaining. Quite a few drivers were out on
runs on used ultra soft tyres with thirty minutes remaining. As the session
drew to a close drivers were on longer runs on the ultra soft and super soft
tyres. Both drivers had dropped one place to see Williams fourteenth and
sixteenth. With Ericsson going off at Turn six after having lost the rear
the Virtual Safety car would be deployed. The session would come to an end
with the Williams drivers remaining in fourteenth and sixteenth.
Felipe Massa:
Felipe would join Lance out on the track except he was on the super soft
tyre. Felipe would go quickest with a 1m:26.367 but he would drop to second.
He would pit currently fifth having completed just five laps. He would drop
to sixth behind Sainz. With the restart Felipe would stop at Turn 9 ending
his session. Felipe would start the walk back to the pits but hs car would
not return until after the end of the session. Felipe had been on an ultra
soft tyre run prior to stopping but had not set a time on the softer tyre.
It was reported that it was a gearbox issue for Felipe.
Lance Stroll:
Lance would be first out for the Williams in the second Friday practice
session. He would start the session on the soft tyre. His first lap was a
1m:29.420 to be third but as others would go faster he would drop down the
order. With ten minutes completed he was seventh but with a lot of drivers
to set a time. He would drop to thirteenth but had improved his time with a
1m:27.797. After seven laps Lance would also pit. Lance would get onto the
radio to complain about Raikkonen hindering him. As the session progressed
Lance would drop to seventeenth 2.8 seconds off the quickest time. Lance
would come out with the green flag also on the ultra soft tyre and would set
a 1m:26.525. He would pit after six laps.
Lance was just 0.194 behind Felipe but Felipe had yet to set a time on the
ultra soft tyre. He would return to the track running on used ultra soft
tyres and with seven minutes remaining would pit having completed a total of
sixteen laps on the ultra soft tyres. Lance would return but was on the soft
tyre this time.
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