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Japanese GP: ROKiT Williams continues evaluations in FP2


By Andrew Hooper
October 11 2019

The second Friday practice session for the 2019 Japanese GP would see the ROKiT Willaims team continue their evaluations of their new front wing. Due to the change in timetable for the Japanese event due to the typhoon this second was busier than normal with the team working through data collection as well as quicker runs. The team would come away from the session with some useful data for Sunday. As far as the results were Robert Kubica would finish ahead of heam-mate George Russell but the pair were slowest overall.

 
 ROKiT Williams Japanese GP Friday 2nd Practice
 
Russell
 

Team Summary:
The second Friday practice session for the 2-019 Japanese Grand Prix would be the last opportunity the teams would have prior to qualifying, now on Sunday morning. If qualifying could not be run Sunday this session would also be used to determine the grid for the race. So these ninety minutes would be of far greater importance than we would normally would see. cars would start to come out with Vettel out first running on the medium tyre. Vettel would set a 1m:30.386 as more times started to appear. Grosjean was second from Magnussen. Quicker times would be seen with Albon quickest only to see sainz and then Bottas quicker with Bottas setting a 1m:29.469. Hamilton would move into second followed by Sainz and Albon. Albon would improve to be second also on the medium tyre. But Hamilton would move ahead again seeing a Mercedes 1-2.

Ricciardo was now fourth but on the soft tyre. But it would change at the front with Vettel going fastest with a 1m:28.392 followed by Bottas, Leclerc, and Hamilton. The Williams drivers were in 19th and 20th separated by 0.2s. Verstappen would move into second but like Vettel on the soft tyre. But both Mercedes were back out on the soft tyre. But Bottas would spin coming onto the main straight. He would be able to continue and continue down the main straight. Albon was able to move into third ahead of Bottas and Kvyat now fifth. Hamilton on his soft tyre run would set a 1m:27.896 to be quickest. Bottas despite his spin would move into second now followed by Vettel and Leclerc. Verstappen and Albon were fifth and sixth. Stroll was seventh followed by Kvyat, Sainz and Norris tenth.

Verstappen would improve with a 1m:28.066 to now be second behind Hamilton. But Bottas would set a 1m:27.785 ti go quickest ahead of Hamilton with just over forty minutes remaining. Verstappen was now third followed by Vettel, Albon, Leclerc, Sainz, Perez, Norris and Kvyat tenth. The Renault's were currently 16th and 18th but had yet to complete soft tyre runs. As the session wound down there would be various types of runs taking place with some doing qualifying runs and other race runs. The Williams drivers had completed their qualifying simulations with Robert ahead of George. This would be followed by longer runs on firstly the soft tyre followed by split runs with the medium and hard been used. Raikkonen would move into tenth using the soft tyre. Both Ferrari's would come out on the soft tyre for what appeared to be qualifying simulations. Leclerc would only finish in fourth and Vettel fifth. The session would come to an end with the order been Bottas, Hamilton, Verstappen, Leclerc, Vettel, Albon, Sainz, Perez, Gasly and Norris tenth. The Williams pair would remain slowest with the Renault's just in front of the Williams cars. Today was really a day where the focus was on the evaluations of the newer front wing with both drivers having the opportunity to test it. Hopefully the evaluations have shown that this change to the front wing produces the results that they expected.

Robert Kubica:
With the start of the session there would be a fair amount of work on his car. With fifteen minutes completed Robert would finally take to the track running on soft tyres. Robert was again running the test front wing. Robert would set a 1m:32.882 be just behind his team-mate. He would improve with a 1m:32.607. Robert would pit after a seven lap run. Robert would return and on the soft tyre would set a 1m:31.515, using the new front wing as the team continued their evaluations. Kubica would pit after a five lap run. Like his team-mate he would return again on soft tyres and would set a 1m:30.916 to again behind of George. He would pit after a three lap run in what looked like a qualifying simulation. Just under thirty minutes remaining and Robert would return for another soft tyre run. He would continue to run with the newer front wing with flow viz covering the front of his car. He would complete a longer eight lap run prior to pitting and switching to the medium tyre for his next run. With the end of the session he would pit having complete eleven laps on the medium tyre.

George Russell:
George would be first out for Williams running on the hard tyre. George would pit after a single installation lap. George would return this time on the soft tyre and would set a 1m:32.619 to currently be 13th. George would lower his time to now be a 1m:32.389. After a seven lap run George would pit, currently 17th. He would drop to 19th as he would return with just over an hour remaining. George was back out on the soft tyre again. George was back running the older front wing. George would set a 1m:31.621 and would pit after a five lap run. After a short stop George would return again on the soft tyre and would set a 1m:31.071 to move ahead of his team-mate after what appeared to be his qualifying simulation but was still down in 19th. But team-mate Robert would move ahead seeing George slowest. George would also return again on the soft tyres with twenty eight minutes remaining. He would complete a nine lap run pitting and switching to the hard tyre. With the end of the session George would pit completing ten laps ion the hard tyre.

 
Kubica
 
Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m27.785s - 33
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m27.885s 0.100s 34
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 1m28.066s 0.281s 24
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1m28.141s 0.356s 28
5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m28.376s 0.591s 37
6 Alexander Albon Red Bull-Honda 1m28.402s 0.617s 34
7 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren-Renault 1m29.051s 1.266s 29
8 Sergio Perez Racing Point-Mercedes 1m29.299s 1.514s 28
9 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso-Honda 1m29.354s 1.569s 34
10 Lando Norris McLaren-Renault 1m29.358s 1.573s 35
11 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1m29.477s 1.692s 29
12 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Honda 1m29.512s 1.727s 35
13 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1m29.553s 1.768s 28
14 Lance Stroll Racing Point-Mercedes 1m29.597s 1.812s 27
15 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1m29.651s 1.866s 33
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1m29.749s 1.964s 31
17 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1m29.859s 2.074s 30
18 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m30.334s 2.549s 29
19 Robert Kubica Williams-Mercedes 1m30.916s 3.131s 35
20 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 1m31.071s 3.286s 36
 
Kubica
 

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Japanese GP: ROKiT Williams continues evaluations in FP2
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11/10/2019 11:46
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