Mexican GP: Positive start for Williams Martini in FP1


By Andrew Hooper
October 28 2016

The opening Friday practice session for the 2016 Mexican GP would see the Williams Martini team have a positive start with their drivers in 6th and 9th. Valtteri Bottas would finish ahead of his team-mate Felipe Massa in what was an unevetful session for the team as they worked through their programme. During the session both drivers had focused on runs on the soft tyre.

 
  Williams Martini Mexican GP Friday 1st Practice
 
Bottas
 

Team Summary:
As the drivers came out for their installation laps there would be a mix of soft, medium, and supersoft tyres being used. The field would complete their installation lap with both Williams cars running on the medium tyre. The first time would be set by Ocon with a 1m:28.842 on a track that was very dusty. Alonso on the medium tyre would set a 1m:26.398 to go quickest, followed by a 1m:24.933. Both Renault cars were out along with Button. Magnussen would set a 1m:28.151 to be second. Both Williams cars were on the track with an hour and five minutes remaining. Valtteri was now quickest from Alonso and Sainz. Vettel would go second with a 1m:24.896 but everyone would drop one place as Rosberg went quickest with a 1m:22.748, running on the soft tyre. Hamilton was now second, 1m:23.802, but Vettel would take this spot with a 1m:23.587. Hamilton was now quickest with a 1m:21.936 to be 0.812 ahead of Rosberg.

Verstappen was now third followed by Vettel, Valtteri, and Ricciardo sixth. Perez was now third with Valtteri fourth but Perez was on the supersoft tyre. Rosberg would improve with a 1m:21.846 to now be just 0.213 behind Hamilton. The session would be red flagged as a result of debris coming on the Sauber of Nasr when he had a front wing failure after running over the kerb. The track was now empty as the debris was cleared up. The session would restart with forty eight minutes remaining. After their runs the Williams cars were third and fourth prior to pitting. Verstappen was back in his garage with his rear brakes damaged with overheating. Both Mercedes cars were out on the medium tyre and were setting times close or better than that on the soft tyre. Hamilton had set a 1m:21.527 to now be 0.319 ahead of Rosberg.

Perez was now fifth followed by Verstappen, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Vettel, and Sainz tenth. Rosberg had improved with a 1m:21.673 to now be just 0.146 behind Hamilton. Now Kvyat was third seeing the Williams cars fourth and fifth. On the supersoft Perez would set a 1m:21.347 to be second with Hulkenberg third also on the supersoft tyre. Rosberg was now forth and Ricciardo fifth. Perez had improved with a 1m:21.200 and Hulkenberg a 1m:21.409. Vettel was third with a 1m:21.407 using the soft tyre. He would improve to be second with a 1m:20.993 while Hamilton had set a 1m:20.914. On the soft tyre Raikkonen was now third behind Vettel. As the session drew to a close both Williams cars were on longer runs on the soft tyre running in sixth and ninth. With the end of the session they would remain in these positions. A far more positive start for the Williams team.

Valtteri Bottas:
Valtteri would follow Felipe out also using the medium tyre. Like his team-mate he would also pit after a single lap. Valtteri would come out first for Williams running on the soft tyre and would set a 1m:24.337 to go quickest. Valtteri would drop to fifth as others went quicker. But Valtteri would also find time setting a 1m:22.837 to be third. He would drop to fourth but on his next lap would go quickest in the first sector. Valtteri had completed seven laps on the soft tyre when he pitted. Valtteri was also back out on his used soft tyre. Valtteri would continue his run on the soft tyre and would again go quickest in sector one. Prior to this he had moved to third with a 1m:22.408 but his quick lap would see him fail to improve as he pitted.

Valtteri was back out on a new set of soft tyres, currently fifth. He would go quickest in the first sector and an improved second. He would set a 1m:21.883 to be sixth then seventh. But he would improve to be fifth with a 1m:21.652. He would again find time with a 1m:21.447 but remained fifth as he pitted. This would become sixth with fifteen minutes remaining. Valtteri would return with fourteen minutes remaining coming back out on the second set of used soft tyres and would run to the end of the session.

Felipe Massa:
Felipe would use the opening session to run with the halo on his car. Felipe would come out running on medium tyres and would pit after a single lap. Felipe would return for his first run this time on the soft tyre. He would set a slow 1m:31.366 to be fifteenth. Felipe would improve with a 1m:24.504 to be eighth. Felipe would also improve with a 1m:23.324 to be seventh then ninth. With the restart Felipe was first back out still on the used soft tyre. Felipe would also improve setting a1m:22.556 to be fourth to be 0.148 behind his team-mate. Felipe would also pit. He would also come back out on a new set of soft tyres. Felipe was currently tenth but he would improve with a 1m:21.997 to be eighth. Like Valtteri he would find time setting a 1m:21.860 but remained eighth. Felipe would also pit as he dropped to ninth. Felipe was also back out but would complain about how he was having an issue with the rear locking up. Felipe would also run to the end of the session.

 
Bottas
 

Pos  Driver         	Team		        Time     Laps
1  Lewis Hamilton 	Mercedes 		1m20.914s 34 
2  Sebastian Vettel 	Ferrari 		0.079s 	  23 
3  Kimi Raikkonen 	Ferrari 		0.158s    19 
4  Sergio Perez Force 	India-Mercedes 		0.286s    23 
5  Nico Hulkenberg 	Force India-Mercedes 	0.495s    23 
6  Valtteri Bottas 	Williams-Mercedes 	0.533s    34 
7  Nico Rosberg 	Mercedes 		0.759s    32 
8  Daniel Ricciardo 	Red Bull-Renault 	0.813s    27 
9  Felipe Massa 	Williams-Mercedes 	0.922s    31 
10 Daniil Kvyat 	Toro Rosso-Ferrari 	1.301s    29 
11 Romain Grosjean 	Haas-Ferrari 		1.586s    21 
12 Carlos Sainz 	Toro Rosso-Ferrari 	1.649s    32 
13 Marcus Ericsson 	Sauber-Ferrari 		1.809s    17 
14 Max Verstappen 	Red Bull-Renault 	1.963s    10 
15 Esteban Gutierrez 	Haas-Ferrari 		1.996s    23 
16 Fernando Alonso 	McLaren-Honda 		2.175s    25 
17 Felipe Nasr 		Sauber-Ferrari 		2.175s    12 
18 Jenson Button 	McLaren-Honda 		2.428s    24 
19 Kevin Magnussen 	Renault 		2.642s    32 
20 Esteban Ocon 	Manor-Mercedes 		3.169s    30 
21 Jolyon Palmer 	Renault 		3.183s    35 
22 Pascal Wehrlein 	Manor-Mercedes 		3.436s    28 
 
Massa
 

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Mexican GP: Positive start for Williams Martini in FP1
Discussion started by Williams F1 , 28/10/2016 17:52
Williams F1
28/10/2016 17:52
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