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
 
Stroll
 

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.

 
Massa
 
Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m23.620s - 34
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m24.167s 0.547s 35
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m24.176s 0.556s 34
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m24.525s 0.905s 30
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1m24.650s 1.030s 27
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1m25.013s 1.393s 8
7 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso/Renault 1m25.084s 1.464s 34
8 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m25.436s 1.816s 29
9 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m25.478s 1.858s 36
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Renault 1m25.493s 1.873s 39
11 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m25.591s 1.971s 35
12 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 1m26.000s 2.380s 19
13 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1m26.145s 2.525s 37
14 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m26.331s 2.711s 6
15 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m26.498s 2.878s 29
16 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1m26.525s 2.905s 27
17 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Honda 1m26.608s 2.988s 33
18 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber/Ferrari 1m26.919s 3.299s 30
19 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m27.279s 3.659s 8
20 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m27.549s 3.929s 4
 
Stroll
 
  

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Australian GP: Frustrating FP2 for Williams Martini
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