Malaysian GP: Williams drivers remain in top 10 in FP2

The second Friday practice session for the 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix would continue to be run under dry but hot conditions as for the Williams Martini team Felipe Massa would take to the track first, running on the hard tyre. The first time of the session would be a 1m:44.005 as Felipe set a slow 1m:56.873. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas was now out on the track also on the hard tyre for his first run. Button was now fastest with a 1m:42.445 but he was passed by Hulkenberg with a 1m:42.293. Button would improve his benchmark with a 1m:41.635 but Valtteri would set a 1m:41.072 to be quickest. Felipe would join Valtteri at the top of the times going second with a 1m:41.075. For the Williams team their focus would be tyre work in this afternoon session.

Raikkonen was now third followed by Rosberg, Button, Alonso, Hulkenberg and Gutierrez in eighth. All the times so far had been set on the hard tyre with fifteen minutes of the session completed. Ricciardo would move up to be third with a 1m:41.079. Vergne was down in ninth with just over an hour remaining. Most of the field would pit returning on the medium tyre for their next runs. Perez would improve to be eleventh with a 1m:41.671 running on the option tyre. Felipe would be first out on the medium tyre followed by eighth placed Rosberg. Valtteri would follow Felipe shortly after as more drivers started their medium tyre work.

Hamilton on the mediums would set a time of 1m:40.051 but Rosberg was next to improve with a 1m:39.909 to be quickest. Felipe was now third with a 1m:40.112, having been fastest at one time, and Alonso fourth followed by Magnussen. Vettel was now sixth followed by Valtteri and Ricciardo. Both Mercedes cars would pit as Valtteri set a 1m:40.638 to be fourth. But the team would admit that Valtteri had made a mistake on this lap so their was more to come.

Raikkonen was able to move into second with a 1m:39.944 and Alonso fourth, 1m:40.103. Felipe had pitted and was in fifth and Valtteri sixth. Vettel and Ricciardo were ninth and tenth, but Vettel would improve to be sixth with a time of 1m:40.161. Valtteri had also now pitted with forty five minutes remaining. Vettel would again improve with a 1m:39.970 to be third. This would see Felipe drop to sixth and Valtteri was now ninth with Ricciardo and Button seventh and eighth. The track was now quite empty but Rosberg would come back out again on new set of medium tyres. He would be joined by Hamilton also on new medium tyres. Button was also out on the track as Rosberg pitted after just a very short run.

For Williams Valtteri was back out as Hamilton pitted if only briefly. With just under forty minutes remaining Felipe would return to the track running on used medium tyres. More drivers would return completing longer runs on the medium tyre. As the session counted down several drivers would return to their pits to take on the hard tyre for their next runs, including both Mercedes cars, Ricciardo and Button. With ten minutes remaining both Williams cars continued on their medium tyre runs.

The lap times had dropped off considerable as drivers set times raging from the 1m:44s through to 1m:48s. Felipe would pit returning on the hard tyre with eight minutes remaining. Raikkonen was also on the hard tyre with five minutes remaining. Valtteri had completed fifteen laps on his medium tyre with what looked like the Williams team running different tyre test split between their two drivers. Right near the end of the session Rosberg would pit taking on the medium tyre. The session would come to an end with Rosberg fastest from Raikkonen, Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Felipe, Ricciardo, Button, Valtteri, and Hulkenberg tenth.

The Williams drivers would again complete practice pit stops as they returned to their pits in a session that again saw both drivers in the top ten. Felipe was just 0.2s behind the quickest time but Valtteri was a bigger margin behind been 0.7s behind Rosberg. Valtteri would complete thirty five laps while Felipe had completed thirty four, in another sign of good reliability from the FW36.

For Felipe Massa to have finished sixth today was not a surprise. Felipe would say: "Surprised? No. I am sure they have a competitive car and they are going to be there fighting. We saw also a good lap from Vettel, so he can be there fighting and I hope we can be there in a good direction to fight with them. I hope we can fight for the top five [in qualifying]."

Pos  Driver         	Team		      Time       Laps
 1.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes              1m39.909s  30
 2.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari               1m39.944s  30
 3.  Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull-Renault      1m39.970s  30
 4.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes              1m40.051s  32
 5.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari               1m40.103s  29
 6.  Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes     1m40.112s  34
 7.  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault      1m40.276s  29
 8.  Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes      1m40.628s  28
 9.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes     1m40.638s  35
10.  Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes  1m40.691s  34
11.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso-Renault    1m40.777s  33
12.  Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes      1m41.014s  20
13.  Adrian Sutil       Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.257s  28
14.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault    1m41.325s  32
15.  Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.407s  34
16.  Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes  1m41.671s  25
17.  Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault         1m42.531s  14
18.  Max Chilton        Marussia-Ferrari      1m43.638s  20
19.  Jules Bianchi      Marussia-Ferrari      1m43.752s  29
20.  Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault      1m45.703s  31
21.  Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault                 0
22.  Pastor Maldonado   Lotus-Renault                    0